Redamancy
by America's Got Fandom
Summary: A collection of Emmet x Lucy oneshots! I'm still on an Emmetstyle high from Lego Movie Two…oh well. Fluff, angst (hopefully), oneshots, and…a marriage proposal? FINALLY! Updates may be slightly irregular. Spoilers for Lego Movie 2. Oh, and some may/ do have hints at BennyxSweet Mayhem. Hm, Benhem? Sweenny? Open to ship name suggestions.
1. Emmet's Question

**A/N: I've decided to do my first oneshot collection! These may jump around in time, may not have to do with each other, and most/some WILL contain spoilers for Lego Movie 2. Updates may be slightly irregular. Happy Reading! (BTW: I don't know how Lego rings work on fingers so just bear with me here)**

"Emmet," Lucy called. The couch enveloped her welcomingly, the blanket draped lazily over her legs like it had been tossed there. "Are you coming?"

He was coming, he was just taking his time. After all, it wasn't everyday someone _proposed. _His hands were clammy. His breath shook. Several times he had to reach out and grab something because the room was clearly spinning around him. The mere _possibility _that she would say no made his heart sick. The thought of it being over, really, really over was too much to handle. Only a proposal could send it there.

Unikitty had told him there was no reason to be afraid, and she had full confidence that Lucy would say yes.

Benny, Sweet Mayhem, Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi, Batman, Metal Beard, Vitruvius, ok, EVERYONE thought she would say yes. On the same note, they weren't the ones proposing.

"Lucy," he began, speaking to his mirror that would certainly (probably) not reject him. "I love you with all my heart, you're the most special, amazing person I've ever met, and to this day I can't believe that you chose me to be with. So…" he removed the ring box from his pocket with a jittery hand. "…I was hoping that you would choose to spend the rest of your life with me. Lucy, will you marry me?"

Emmet had gone through a lot to get to this point.

First, he had to go through the torture of deciding to propose. Three therapist visits, five-hundred sixty-two motivational quotes, six days of listening to Everything is Awesome and finally just a day of isolation gave him the courage to decide to propose.

He had to find a ring.

That wasn't easy, either. He had an idea in mind: a simple, plain rose-gold band, with a two-karat diamond in a heart shape. On the band he wanted an inscription, _Everything is Awesome When I'm With You. _And believe me, deciding on the inscription was a whole other crisis.

Eventually he had to have it custom ordered, but that was fine with him.

"Emmet!" His girlfriend called again. "You ok?"

"F-fine!" His voice was shattering worse than glass in a hurricane. "Just a…give me a sec!"

He tried to suck in a breath, but it didn't help much.

_Just do it. She loves you, you know that. _

What if he messed it up?

Besides, it's not like this was his original plan. In the beginning, he had planned an elaborate confetti-glitter-candy explosion with the words, _MARRY ME, LUCY! _Written on a sixty-foot cake. Of course, she had to go through a scavenger hunt first, and that was after she woke up in a hotel on the other side of town to give the 'surprise' factor.

Yeah, the guys had gently talked him down from there.

He decided instead to go with what she liked doing best; proposing during a quiet movie night, when they could be alone and comfortable.

"EMMET!"

"Coming!"

_Ok, this is it. Just go, open the door, and do it. Now._

_Now._

_Come on, just open the door. That's the hardest part._

_DO IT._

He did it.

_Hey, that wasn't so bad!_

Unfortunately, Lucy had chosen that particular night to look stunning. Her hair was in its usual side-pony tail, just messy enough to look cute. She was in her signature hoodie and pants, laying across the couch like a casual Sleeping Beauty. Her freckles were dominant without any makeup on, giving her a girlish adorability.

He was ready to faint.

"Finally. You ready for the movie?" She sat up, still leaning heavily on the couch. "You ok, Emmet? You look pale."

Oh, did he? He hadn't noticed with the way his knees were shaking.

"Uhm…Lucy? Can-can I ask you something?" His voice was breaking like a chandelier in a hurricane.

His beautiful girlfriend nodded. "What's up, babe?"

Emmet was considering running. Yes, running would be a very good option in the boiling water of the moment, but he would regret it later. "Uh, huh, uhm…I just…sit."

"I'm already sitting."

"Oh yeah."

Well wasn't this off to a magnificent start.

He took his sweet time stepping to her side, careful not to sit down. He knew that if he sat down he might never kneel.

_Breathe, Emmet. Breathe._

Lucy finally noticed that her boyfriend was standing (and hyperventilating to a degree) in front of her. "Are you ok?" She shifted in her spot and pulled off the blanket. He didn't respond. "Emmet?"

This was it. He took in a deep, fresh breath of the spring air that filled his jittery lungs and forced his gaze on hers. Whatever that lay inside him that was similar to Rex, he needed it now. "Lucy, I have something to ask you. Don't interrupt me, just let me talk."

_Huh, I actually managed to get two sentences out!_

Lucy eyed him up and down like a military officer. "Uh, ok. But don't talk like that, you sound like Rex."

_Dang it._

Another deep breath passed over his lips without the courage he needed. "Lucy, you know I love you, right?" He finally found his natural emotions finding their place in his mind, for a soft smile was on his face as he gently took her hands in his.

She nodded, returning the grin. "Of course. I love you too. Now, where is this going?"

Emmet bent down on one knee.

Lucy's eyes nearly popped out her sockets.

"Em-Emmet?" Now _her _voice was cracking under the earthquake of emotion.

He took his hand in his, despite the shaking from both parties. He couldn't remember the speech he had memorized _at all,_ but his shaking, shock, and nervousness was now passed to her. "Lucy, I love you. I've loved you from the moment I saw you. You're everything to me. I still can't believe that you love me, and I don't ever want to let you go. Lucy," Ignoring for his own sanity her jaw-dropped expression, he pulled out the ring box, opened it, and revealed the shimmering stone. "Will you marry me?"

Lucy didn't respond.

This did not sit well with Emmet. "Lucy, please say something, my knee hurts and I'm about to hyperventilate."

"Yes."

_"What?"_

Tears, salty tears started pouring down her face. Her smile was beyond her control. She gripped his hand like a lifeline. "Yes, yes, Emmet, yes, yes." She wanted to repeat the work over and over again, yes, yes, yes…

She said yes.

Emmet's tears matched her won. He had promised himself that no matter the answer, he wouldn't cry.

So much for that.

"You…you…really? You actually want to marry me?" He had to check, just in case. "You're being serious, right?"

A pure laugh escaped her lips. She slipped her arms behind his neck and pulled him close. "Does this answer your question?" It was all she could mumble out before kissing him like it was New Years, Christmas, and his birthday all in one.

Falling down from the couch to her knees in front of him, she drew him even closer into her embrace. "I love you so, _so_ much." They both considered themselves the luckiest person in the world.

Not wanting to separate for a moment, she pulled his hands to hers so he could slip the ring on her. It fit her like a glove, her perfect match. Just like him.

"Lucy?" He murmured, finally pulling away to see her damp, mascara-smudged adorable face.

"Yeah?"

His arms around her in a tight hug, his words came out through a sigh of bliss. "Thank you."


	2. Doubt

**A/N: Not my best, set the night after Lego Movie 2, which you really have to see to understand this.**

Emmet was a lucky guy.

He pondered this as he leaned against the pearly picket fence of their new home. He had wondered _how_ he got so lucky many times, but tonight he just wanted to stare at the stars and be thankful for everything he had.

He had a beautiful girlfriend who loved him with the strength of a mother saving her child in danger, friends who valued him like gold, and a future ahead of him that was brighter than a doable bucket list. He was almost afraid to admit it for fear of losing everything, but he didn't think he could live without them.

"What'cha doing, Emmet?"

Following Lucy's words, her arms snaked around him like a heated, velvet blanket on Christmas Eve. He could feel her sigh in contentment; her chest rose and fell in a slow motion, and her breath was warm bliss on the back of his neck.

As the warmth became familiar, he was able to contain his jump at spotting her Play-Doh, cotton-candy, sky and berry locks against the back ink of the sky. "Still getting used to your new hair," he chucked, leaning back into her arms.

"You like it?" Please, please say yes. Her arms tightening around his chest contradicted her frame backing away from him. She needed his approval, his assurance. The affirmation that he forgave her. For lying, deceiving, leading him on into a world he was unaware was a simulation. Cruel. She was cruel for doing such a thing. He trusted her, and she hadn't been able to tell him her true hair color.

And now, she craved his love for her. Her. Her as a whole–the hair, the lies, the truth, the life.

Emmet nodded vigorously. "Yeah, you look great!"

In silence, she gave her gratitude that he wasn't able to detect her relief, especially the pink hue that powdered her cheeks. What had she been worried about? Emmet was Emmet, forgiving and loving, there was no wrong she could do that he couldn't forgive. "Thanks," she murmured, her words thick and slow like molasses.

She couldn't stop here, could she? Like a child's confession to a mother, it was either all or nothing. Now that she had started the race, there was no choice but to finish it, especially with the black hole of guilt gutting away at her insides. "There's…something else I have to ask you." Oh, how she hated this. She wanted to go to bed, to skip to twenty minutes in future where this was all over and she wasn't being consumed by guilt and nerves.

Correctly assuming what his girlfriend had to say was important to her, Emmet took a moment to pull out of her arms and face her. "Yeah, sure!"

Wasting no time, she stared straight into his eyes and asked her fate, "Emmet, back at the wedding, when I said that I liked you when you were sweet and kind, you said that the real Lucy would never say that." Her breath was a sharp needle before she hit the racetrack again. "Do you really think that I don't love you for who you are?"

A shrug of his shoulders did not comfort Lucy. "I mean, kind of, but then I just remind myself that you broke up with Batman for me, so I can't be too bad, right?"

He could be so naïve sometimes, Lucy regarded bitterly. Couldn't he get mad at her for once? Then maybe they could be even, and she wouldn't have to be the bad one. "Emmet, why do you stick around?"

Now, _that _question was foreign to Emmet. Why was he with her? Answering such a question was like telling someone why two plus two equals four. It just…_is._

"Lucy, I love you for you! I don't know how to explain it…" What he really didn't know was how to explain it in a way she could understand. How could he tell her that he woke up from dreams about her? How would he explain that every morning he got up early just so he could make sure breakfast was ready before she got up? How could she ever understand that as he went through his day, he thought about whether or not she was happy in that moment? It would be difficult to explain that he put the blankets in the dryer before bed because she once told him she hated being cold at night.

As she watched him grow increasingly frazzled, a soft smile found a place on her face. He loved her, all right. She knew now. Silencing him with a slow kiss that reminded her of their first, she murmured under her smile, "I get it, Emmet. I get it."

His smile copied hers exactly. "So, we're good?"

She leaned forward and let their hands meet. "Yeah, we're good."

"You two are adorable!"

Emmet and Lucy turned around, spotting Unikitty on the porch of their house. "You guys coming to bed or what?" She let out a yawn, and Emmet believed she was dangerously close to falling asleep on the porch right then and there.

Nodding, she took his hand. "Ready to go, babe?"

"Yeah…" he yawned and stretched, the day's events finally catching up with him. "I'm tired."

"Gee, I wonder why?" Slipping her hands in his, she gently dragged him to the house, taking a quick detour to grab the E&L 4-EVA pillow. "No reason this should be outside," she told Emmet as soon as he spotted her display of sentimentality.

Unikitty smiled. They were really awesome.


	3. Changes

**A/N: Ok, a long one for a change! Thanks for all your reviews, they make me so happy! **

"She's, like, not even _trying. _It's embarrassing."

"I know. Why is he even with her?"

"Beats me. He could get someone so much better, he's like a celebrity."

"You think she'd get a makeover or something."

Have I ever mentioned that I hate, and I do mean _hate _girls who say things like that?

I couldn't help but overhear them. I was just walking around town, on my way back home to see Emmet, when I heard some frilly, gossipy-girls talking about me. How can they sleep at night saying things like that?

Is that what they think? That I don't even try? I look fine! I put on lipstick and stuff, I…I…well…

I guess that's it.

Oh, who _cares _what they think.

Shrugging it off, I continue on my way home. Emmet and I are planning to have a nice night alone tonight, Unikitty is staying with Sweet Mayhem for a sleepover. They should have a lot in common, mainly a love for all things glittery.

Emmet came to me this morning and asked me if I wanted to have a big movie night, and by the look on his face alone I couldn't say no. He's just…sweet. Adorable, same as when I first met him.

He's always there for me. Every morning I wake up and find his arms snug around my waist, his breath ticking the back of my neck. Sometimes I think back to when we first met, and how quickly I grew to like him. He's the best.

Do I even deserve him?

I wince at the thought. He tried to change for me…he nearly died trying to be tough for me. He just…he saw that I thought he wasn't tough enough and tried to change. Do I love him enough to do the same?

Despite telling myself those girls know nothing about Emmet, their words just keep invading my thoughts.

I will not care about what those 'cool' girls think of me. I will not. Like avoiding bad reviews to your favorite movie, I will not think about it!

I almost make it home unscathed, but marketing is a cruel mistress.

My eyes wander to a poster smacked onto the window of a mall.

**_Do you need a makeover? Are girls talking about you behind your back? Do people think you don't try to look pretty? Does your boyfriend sacrifice more than you do?_**

This is oddly specific.

**_If you answered 'yes' to those questions, then you're in luck! Come in today to URFANTASTIC and get a FREE trial makeover, everything included! Sale ending today!_**

_No. Don't do it. Lucy, whatever you do, you will NOT go into this mall. You're better than this. You have your self-respect, dignity and pride. You will stand your ground and refuse to give into the gossip and standards set–_

"Unikitty?" Good thing I have her number on speed-dial. "Can you meet me at Peg Mall? I'm…getting a makeover. Hello? Unikitty?" All I can hear from the phone is the steady drip of phone-droplets. What happened?

"EEEEEEEEEEEE!" Unikitty yells in my ear after appearing next to me in a burst of sparkles and glitter. "I'M SO EXCITED, COME ON!"

You know, for a unicorn-cat, Unikitty has some immense strength.

We zip by a fast-food place, several jewelry and clothing stores, three kid's shops, six sports stores and five other floors before halting at URFANTASTIC. At least, those are the stores I could catch. It's hard to see when Unikitty drags you at three-hundred miles per hour like that.

"Unikitty, I don't know about this." The smell of artificial perfume is making my throat close up. "Emmet's expecting me home, anyway."

Unikitty shakes her head. "I already called him and told him you'd be late. Don't worry, you'll look amazing!"

Sheepishly, for once in my life, I look down to the floor. "I don't know, maybe I'm being crazy."

Finally getting her breathing back down to a normal level, my best girlfriend looks at me. "Wyldstyle, listen. We won't do this is you don't want to, but I know you'll look beautiful."

I meet her eyes. Maybe she's right. Besides, whatever they do to me is temporary, right? And who knows, maybe I will look cool. After all, Emmet is still a guy, and whatever they do won't look _bad, _so what's the harm? "Alright, let's do it."

The moment we walk in, a swarm of sales women surround us like bees around a flailing child. They all reek of perfume, chemicals and nail polish remover. "Hi!" One overeager woman who seems to be the most interested in helping me stands at the front of the pack. The top of her blonde hair seems to rise an inch above her head, and the rest falls past her elbows in a waterfall of 75% hairspray and 25% hair. "My name's Candy, I'll be helping you today!"

Apparently, in the world of salons, that means 'this one's mine', because all the rest of the women retreat. I can finally see the rest of the place, which is stark-white, except for the colorful bottles, products, and wall accents. It's…bright. Like, really blinding. Does the CEO where sunglasses all the time or something?

Candy puts an arm around me and leads me to a white leather chair. Several women are smiling at me from the other chairs, encouraging my new endeavor. "Now, what would you like done today? I assume a whole makeover, yes?"

I look to Unikitty, who subtly nods with kind eyes. "Uh, yeah."

Candy gasps through a permanent smile. "Oh, I know you! You're Wyldstyle, the famous Master Builder! Oh, I've been waiting for you to come in!"

Now what does THAT mean?

Before I can question her, she continues, "Now, first thing to start with is the hair."

Oh _no._

Despite my lack of makeover experience, I know what she's about to do.

She lifts her hands up to my ponytail, pulls off the band, and lets my cotton-candy hair fall to my shoulders. I can hear Unikitty gasp behind me, and I think several others are staring.

"That's not going to work…" I try to tell her, but she doesn't listen.

Candy's pink eyes are watering with emotion. "You have such thick, marvelous hair! It seems like you've never done anything to it!"

"Done anything to it?" I ask as other hairstylists come over and nod approvingly at my locks.

Candy starts gathering bottles that vary in shapes, sizes, and levels of chemicals. "You know, blow dried, flat-ironed, that stuff. You don't weigh it down with chemicals and heat, that's why it's so soft and fluffy!"

Unikitty leans over and whispers to me, "Basically, your hair is really healthy."

Oh, that makes sense. I nod, and Unikitty steps back again.

Candy starts fingering my hair, feeling it and running her hands through it. Or, she's running through it as far as she can. My hair is really, _really _knotted. I've broken $60 brushes trying to rip through my hair. "Hm, you have some knots. No worries!"

I smirk. It's been years since I've had that much hope for my hair. Candy doesn't have enough products in all the beauty stores in the whole world for her to fix my hair. Have fun trying, though.

"Good luck, but it's not going to help."

#

Ok, I stand corrected.

She actually got the knots out.

Now, sitting here, (facing away from the mirror) I can actually run my hand though the wet hair with no resistance or pain. "How do I look?"

Unikitty nods eagerly. "Wyldstyle, you look fantastic! Emmet's going to love it!"

"I hope so. Hey, Unikitty? I told you why I came here, right?" I started playing with my hands and looking away from her. Candy is off somewhere gathering torture – I mean hair styling tools.

Uniktty nods. "Yeah, some jerk girls were saying…saying…" Her pink, Easter-Egg color starts to melt into hot-pepper red, so I quickly throw her a glitter cookie. It fixes her composure immediately. "Thanks," she sighs.

"No problem. Anyway, I just…do you think Emmet thinks I'm, y'know…" Ugh, I hate saying things like this. This stuff always makes me cringe. "…pretty?"

Unikitty opens her mouth to respond, but Candy comes back with an armful of products and equipment. "Alright, dear, let's see what we can do with this, shall we?"

Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

#

_Two hours and fifteen minutes later…_

"Unikitty, I'm never, EVER doing that again!" I rub my eyebrows and wince. Who came up with the concept of waxing, anyway? It's a stupid idea. "How do I look?"

She shrugs. "I can't really tell, you have a towel around your hair and a face mask on, so I can't really see. Oh, and here are the clothes you asked for!"

Yeah, I decided that if I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to go all in. I told Unikitty to go down and find me some, yuck, 'trending' clothes. I just have to trust that society knows what it's doing and that I won't look stupid wearing its ideas. Please, society, I hope you have all this thought out.

Besides, if I do this all in, then I'll know I love him enough to change, just like he did for me. I've done far worse things than wear a little makeup and try some new clothes.

Honey walks over to me with a massive, and I mean MASSIVE trunk. "Ok, now onto the makeup!" Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that Candy is on break. Apparently, I'm such a huge project that they need multiple people working on me.

"We haven't even gotten to makeup?" How is that possible? I've been in here for hours! I figured it was time for the check! "Unikitty, how much longer will this take?"

Uniktty took a peek at the clock through half-opened eyes. Even she was getting tired. "Uh, I'd say you'll be home by tomorrow morning."

#

"Ok, I think…I can't believe I'm saying this…" Scarla says. "Honey, Candy, come look, I think we're…_done._" Yeah, Scarla's my third and final addition to my team.

"We're done?" I ask in disbelief. I really don't know if I can believe them. "This isn't like some pre-done, right? 'Done' in my book means that I can go home. No final coats, no more glosses, nothing." I know my clothes are done, I let Unikitty pick something for me and I dressed without looking much at them.

Scarla nods, fluffing my hair up and adjusting it here and there. I'm facing away from the mirror, so I can't see how terrifying/amazing I look. "Unikitty, how do I look?"

Candy, Honey and Unikitty (who have all actually become good friends) walk over. "What, Wyldsy–"

They're staring at me like I just fell to pieces. Not good, not good. Even Honey and Candy are stricken speechless. I'm shaking, my stomach is turning and flipping inside me, I want to see how I look! "Unikitty?"

Unikitty finally manages to open her mouth. "Uhm, wow, you look…different."

"Isn't 'different' bad in the beauty world?"

"You don't look bad!" Unikitty amends quickly. She nears me, mainly looking at my hair. "You just look like a totally new person."

"Honey? Candy?" I don't even know why I'm asking them, it's not like they're going to give me accurate descriptions.

Candy goes first. "You look fantastic, it'll just take some getting used to! This is the shock stage." She looks to Honey, who nods in agreement.

Scarla adds some more hairspray, showering it down on me like rain showers, the type that hit in the middle of July. "You really do look wonderful, that boyfriend of yours will barely recognize you."

I'm not sure if that's what I want.

"Are you…" Unikitty grabs the arm of my seat. "…ready to see it?"

"Yes. I'm ready. This will be fine. I'm ready. For sure. Positively. Maybe." Candy, Honey and Scarla walk away, I guess they figure this is a girlfriend-moment. "Ready, Unikitty?"

She nods. "Ok, and…now!"

She turns the chair.

I open my eyes.

What the…

My hair is still it's Play-Doh, colorful blue and pink.

That's about it.

My hair is layered and trimmed, fluffed up and teased like an 80's girl. It's not huge, but it's bouncy and has several upwards curls going from my ears to my shoulders. A single silver streak lies in the front, shining out from the rest of my hair.

I can see the tar-black eyeliner from a few feet away, and it lies just below Caribbean-Sea eyeshadow. My eyelashes are _blue, _almost purple. My lashes reach up so high I can feel them touching my face.

Any acne I ever had is gone. Destroyed. Obliterated. Banished. Now, in its place, lies enough blush to make it look like I'm embarrassed.

My lips are a blood, burgundy red and sand out from the rest of my face.

My freckles are gone. I don't know where they went or what's covering them, but they're gone.

I finally force myself to look at my outfit. I'm wearing a short, chocolate crop-top over a white tank, both of which actually fit me. I look down to my new, murky navy jeans and my high heels I know I will _not _be able to walk in.

"Unikitty," I mumble through an open mouth. "I look…"

"…different," Unikitty supplies. "But nice! You look pretty! It takes some getting used to, but I think you look nice!"

I thank Candy, Honey and Scarla and tip them, but Unikitty is helping me, I'm kind of in a daze. We walk out of URFANTASTIC (which I will never be able to think of without smelling Citrus-Orange-Lemonade-Avocado-Bean-Sunflower-Juice shampoo) and head home.

"Are you ok, Wyldstyle?" Unikitty asks as we walk down the sidewalks. It's evening, the sky looks like a swirling, waterfall mix of reds, oranges and yellows. "You're quiet."

I finally shake myself out of my trance. "Yeah, fine, I'm just…what's Emmet gonna think?"

Unikitty shakes her head. "Emmet's going to love it. He's super sweet, he'll think you like pretty no matter what."

I guess she's right. I mean, I look conventionally pretty, it's just REALLY jarring to see myself looking so different. Oh, and my face still is varying in temperature from the hot waxing and cold facials, it that normal? Also, when do my eyelashes stop hitting my eyelids and go back down where they're supposed to be?

As we turn onto a new street, I spot Batman. "Woah, hey, Unikitty, who's your new friend?" he asks in a non-flirty tone. He's married now, after all. WOW, I can't believe he's married. And…to a shapeshifting queen? Well, whatever.

Unikitty giggles. "Batman, it's Wyldstyle!"

"_That's _Wyldstyle?" Benny flies over and asks in his usual high-pitched tone. He's followed by Metal Beard, who is giving me a stare that almost makes me back away.

"Tell us somethin' only the REAL Wyldstyle would know," Metal Beard commands, peering down at me suspiciously.

"Emmet's favorite movie, at least this week, is _A Christmas Carol_." Funny, considering it's June. Only Emmet.

They all nod and accept this. "What happened to you?" Benny asks.

"She got a makeover!" Unikitty announces with mini, pastel fireworks around her. Seriously, how does she do that? I mean, even basic physics say…never mind, Unikitty has never been one to follow physics. "Doesn't it look great?"

Before they can give me their half-baked answers, my phone buzzes. "It's Emmet," I tell them. I answer it and hope like heck a person can't smell perfume through a phone. "Hey, babe. What's up?"

"YOU'RE ALIVE!"

I pull the phone away from my ear only a second too late. "Emmet, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, but I've been calling you like crazy for the past two hours, I started to think you died or got kidnapped or left me or something! I even started writing a letter begging you to take me back."

There's no hope of wiping the soft smile that's on my face. I turn away from the group and reply, "Emmet, I'm fine. I'm on my way home."

"Ok, good. I miss you."

I don't think I ever blushed this much with any other guy. "I'll be home in a few minutes, then we can start the movie. Love you."

"Love you!"

I hang up and turn to face a group of saps with watering eyes. "Oh, come on. It wasn't that bad, besides, how much could you even hear?"

"You had it on speaker." Unikitty wipes away a tear. "Come on, we've got to get you home! Bye guys!"

Everyone waves goodbye, and we continue home. I can't help but feel like everyone's staring at me. They've got to be, right? It can't just be me. Why do I feel like an animal on display at a circus?

We arrive back home within minutes. Now my stomach hurts. My head spins. Right in there, Emmet has no idea what awaits him. "Uh, Unikitty?" I smile sweetly. "Do you mind if I talk to him alone first?"

Unikitty shakes her head. "Of course not, I have to go anyway. Have fun!" She starts to leave, and just before I get the key in the door she adds, "By the way, Emmet loves you. Don't worry."

She leaves me with that piece of advice, and I have no choice but to open the door and face the music.

Breathe.

I open the door, but I don't see him. "Emmet?"

His smiling face pops out from a wall. "Hi, Lucy, how was your–" The moment his eyes opened, his ability to speak seemed to fly away from him. Perfect.

"Uh, hi," I greet. I almost smile; he looks just like the first time we met, back when he was so love-struck that he could barely speak. He told me later I was the most beautiful, amazing, gorgeous woman he'd ever seen.

Why did I think this was a good idea again?

"Don't freak out." I walk closer to him and put my hands on his shoulders, just in case I have to wake him out of this trance. "I got a makeover, alright?"

He shakes his head and clears the fog around him. "Why?" He raises one eyebrow and stares into my eyes, taking in the entirety of my appearance.

With a sigh, I tell him the story. And as soon as I get started…I can't stop. I tell him how some weirdos were talking about me, then why I went in, how much I wanted to prove that I could change for him, and even some highlights of the makeover. "I…I just want you to know that I love you, Emmet. I really do."

He throws his arms around me like I'm a stuffed animal. "Lucy, I love you."

My feet start to leave the ground, he's holding me so tight. "Ow, ow!" Just as I start to wrap my arms around him, he drops me to the floor like he's holding burning coals.

"Are you ok?" I finally notice the bandage on his forehead…and he one on his arm. "What happened?"

He clutches his arm and looks up at me, embarrassed, borderline terrified. He bites his bottom lip and tries to explain, "Well, uh, it's not that long of a story. But, if everyone in town starts talking about 'Emmet's most embarrassing day', don't listen to them, they're exaggerating. I'm sure _lots _of people fall off the treadmill. And trip while jump-roping. And have to use the kiddie-weights. And started sweating five minutes in."

He…he went down to the gym? "Emmet…" My laugh is light through my breath, lighter than than my touch against his cheek. "You're adorable, you know that?"

He shrugs. "I've been told so."

"So, you're ok if I put my hair back the way it was, get rid of the makeup and go back to wearing a hoodie?"

He nods eagerly. "Of course, I love the way you look! Lucy, remember when we first met? I couldn't even talk, you were so beautiful!" His eyes are sparkling at the memory.

I eye him curiously as he looks my makeup up and down. "Can I make a quick adjustment?"

I nod, and he goes into the kitchen, grabbing a washcloth and wetting the tip. He walks back over to me with decisive eyes. "Stay still," he murmurs. I shut my eyes, but I can still feel him gently wipe the thick, cakey layer of makeup from my cheeks. "Emmet?"

He pulls back and admires his work, satisfied. "Much better."

He puts down the cloth while I go to the window to check my reflection. I don't see anything different for the first few seconds, but like a whirlwind in the Pacific, it hits me.

My freckles.

He wiped away the makeup so he could see my freckles.

"Emmet?" My voice creaks like floorboards in an attic.

Shivers like frost go down my back at the warmth of his arms around my waist, contrasting the black paint that slowly drips over the fire of evening. He rests his head on my shoulder like it's a pillow, not that I mind. It's nice.

His voice is soft, softer than I've ever heard. Like a wave washing over my feet. "I've always loved your freckles, Lucy."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

I can hear him take a breath through my hair. I wonder if he smells the Citrus Coconut Island Junk shampoo.

He leans in closer, burying his face deeper in my neck and hair. "I love you, Lucy."

So, maybe the makeover wasn't a _total _waste.

"I love you too, Emmet."


	4. Dreams

**A/N: Oh my goshness, thank you all for the sweet reviews! I'm glad everyone likes this collection! This one is from Knight's Journey's request, it's a ****_tad _****different, but I hope you like it! I have another one in the works for the next chapter; spoiler, who remembers Gail?**

_"Emmet!" Lucy's words came out resembling a school girl in front of ice cream. She waved to him from a garden. Uncharacteristic for her, but she was in such a good mood, she couldn't help it. "Come over here!"_

_He didn't respond. "Emmet?" She peered closer, catching sigh of his navy top. Why was he wearing blue?_

_He walked over to her. "Hey, Lucy." His tone was gruff and rough, unlike his usual perky self. He folded his arms across his chest, glaring at her without apparent reason. It left Lucy feeling cold inside, like the blood and drained from her body in one kick._

_Lucy stood up in the flower bed. The garden surrounded her feet, contrasting and clashing with the glare on her boyfriend's face. "Emmet?" Her tone was hopeful, but fading fast. "Why are you wearing that? That's...Rex's shirt."_

_As she looked back up from his chest to his face, she caught sight of his normally combed-over hair, now ruffled and disoriented. "E-Emmet?"_

_Emmet shrugged without a care. His eyes stayed fixed on her form. "This is my new look."_

_Lucy took a step closer to him. "Why are you doing this?"_

_His entire outfit resembled Rex._

_Emmet, again, couldn't be bothered to give her a reaction. "Dunno, this is what you wanted, right?"_

_She shook her head, her heart climbing up into her throat. "No, of course not!"_

_"Yes, it is!" he argued. He crashed his foot into the ground before her with a powerful strike, glaring at her like poison. Normally when Emmet got angry, he looked cute. Now, she was just afraid _for_ him. Where was her Emmet? "This is what you wanted, isn't it? You wanted me to be tough, you wanted me to change! That's what you told me!"_

_Lucy started backing away, her feet leaving the once-endless blanket of sweet roses, soft tulips and fresh daisies, instead stepping into the grass. "I know that's what I said, but I changed my mind!"_

_He rolled his eyes, taking her heart with him. "Sure, Lucy. Did you _ever_ love me?!" He continued walking mere inches in front of her, backing her up farther and farther. Her feet hit hard, pavement-like sand. Why was the sun beating down on her? Why was her hair getting in her face like wasps? Why was Emmet so upset with her?_

_Her eyes were a plain description of her words. "Emmet, of course I loved you! I still do! What's happening to you?"_

_She looked behind her._

_A cliff._

_"Emmet..." her breath was heavy in her throat as she put her hands out to stop him. "Emmet, come back! I love you, what's going on?!"_

_Emmet continued backing her farther and farther towards the edge. "You told me you loved me, then you just...just...hated me!"_

_"No, I didn't! I never hated you!"_

_"Then why did you try to change me?!"_

_"I... I don't know!"_

_"You know! Say it!"_

_Lucy stopped in her tracks, her heels on the edge of the overhang. Emmet halted with her. "Emmet," her voice was a windy whimper. She reached forward and clutched his shoulders, drawing herself near his statue-like form for protection. "I love you."_

_He made no movement. "That isn't good enough anymore. Why did you want me to change?"_

_"Emmet, stop–"_

_"Why?!"_

_"NO!"_

_"Did you just fall out of love with me? Did I need to win back your love by changing?"_

_"Of course not!" The edge cracked. She grabbed Emmet tighter, her arms wrapping around his neck. Unafraid, he made no movement. "Emmet, just listen to me!"_

_Emmet shook his head. "Why did I have to change?"_

_"I wanted to protect you! If you stayed so naïve, I was worried I would lose you! I needed you to be able to protect yourself!"_

_"LIAR!"_

_The force of his holler almost sent her out of his arms. The cliff was going to give, and she knew that. "Emmet, I love you. I know you're in there, and I know my sweet–"_

_"You don't get it!" Hurt was combining with his rage and there was nothing she could do to stop it. "I've changed! There isn't some lost innocence you can rescue, it's done! I did what you wanted!"_

_Lucy looked into his eyes. It was Emmet. Scared, angry, hurt, but it was Emmet. "I love you," she whispered._

_Not giving him the chance to talk, she pulled him by his shoulders into a passionate kiss. There wasn't anything she would rather do in that moment than kiss him._

_She could feel his shock; his hands went to her shoulders, he froze in her arms, his breath halted in her lips..._

_Within the second, he gave._

_He pulled her deeper into his arms, kissing her repeatedly. _

_It was as if they weren't on a cliff anymore; rather, at home, in front of a fire, on Christmas Eve. Unikitty was upstairs, sleeping off too much sugar, a sparking Christmas tree stood in their living room, and Lucy lay wrapped in Emmet's arms, kissing him with the warmth of burning wood mere feet from them. Passionate, warm, loving. Hers, forever._

_She finally pulled back. He was smiling in a daze, a characteristic she found quite adorable. Lightly stroking his cheek, she smiled. "I _knew_ you were in there."_

_A tear fell down Emmet's face. "You tried to change me."_

_Lucy stared at him. Weren't they past this? Didn't they just fix it? "Emmet, what–"_

_Stepping back, he gave her one last apologetic glance. "Goodbye, Lucy."_

_"Emmet?" Her heart choked her words. "Emmet, wait!" She started after him, but at the first vibration of her feet the edge gave a its last breath._

_Crack._

_"Emmet!" She screamed his name out. The harder she tried to stop from falling, the faster the cliff broke, and thus more she panicked–_

_The cliff dissolved; she was left hanging on what was left of the edge with one hand. "Emmet, I love you!"_

_"Liar."_

#

"Emmet!" Lucy shot up on the couch, her heart was beating so hard thoughts of the hospital poured into her mind, she clutched the blankets like they were her last drops of blood, and she was as cold as Antarctica in January.

"Lucy, I'm here, it's ok..." Emmet whispered in a soothing voice from next to her, rubbing her back in long strokes. "Did you have a nightmare?" Emmet asked, blissfully unaware of the terror Lucy had just been through.

She stared at him. "Ems? You-what's going on?" Her hands immediately flew up to her shoulder in a very conscious attempt to keep the love of her life with her.

Emmet cocked an eyebrow. "It's Christmas Eve, are you alright?" His arms tightened around her, letting her lean into his embrace deeper for warmth and protection.

"Wait...so, Unikitty is upstairs, you're not mad at me, Rex is gone, everything's ok?" The disbelief was so apparent in Lucy's voice that Emmet had to double check in his mind she was right.

He nodded, running a hand through her messy side-pony-tail. "Yeah, everything's ok, Lucy. Was it a nightmare? Too much brooding?"

"I don't know..." Lucy murmured. She rubbed her eyes, still reorienting herself with their warmly decorated living room. She stared at the smoldering fire. "What time is it?"

Emmet leaned back to check the clock. "Uh...a little after eleven. We fell asleep watching Christmas movies, Unikitty went to bed a few hours ago." He rubbed her back again, only stopping to pull their heated blanket snug over her. "You wanna talk about it?"

She nodded in silence. Why did she feel like she was seven again, about to confess to her mom that she had stolen from the cookie jar earlier that day? "Emmet, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wanted you to change."

Emmet let out a laugh. At first, she found that insensitive, but his words melted her drumming heart. "Aw, Lucy, I've forgiven you for that, it's all over. I'm just happy you stayed with me after I was such a jerk."

"I just...I don't really know why I wanted you to change, but I..." she stopped talking as he took her by the shoulders, laying her down into his chest. She sighed. "...I love you, y'know."

"I love you too."

Finally, she cracked a smile. "You're the best."

Emmet blushed before hugging his girlfriend tightly. "_You're_ the best, Lucy."

This was better. This was good. This was safe. This was what she loved, _who_ she loved. Her heart fell back into her chest, her breathing stopped hitting speed records, and she melted into his arms.

"You still tired?"

Lucy shook her head, still weary of having another nightmare. "No, can we put on another movie?"

Emmet flipped on the TV. "Already have your favorite on."

Lucy smiled at _The Grinch Who Stole Christmas_ on screen. "Thanks, babe."

He gave his girlfriend a quick but warm kiss before snuggling up against her. "Anytime, Lucy. Anytime."


	5. Hold Me, Please

**A/N: Ok, update: The Gail-story is taking me longer than I thought, so I thought I'd use Totalidiot's idea to hold everyone over while I work on it! Thanks for all the super epic reviews, they mean so much! Sorry this one is shorter, it's not my fav, the next one is better.**

Noise.

Emmet clutched the cotton blue bedspread. He curled beneath the blanket, trying to gather up all the heat available.

He shut his eyes so hard they sent a needle of pain through his forehead.

The rain was continuous, unrelenting. It never stopped, drop after drop melded together to form a cascade of rushing water. A distributed waterfall, plunging on the whole town.

The rumble, the sonic rush ricocheted through the window and into his ears. Why was he such a baby? A little storm, and he was ready to burst into tears.

The downpour had been attacking them for hours, from lunch onwards.

In a brief moment of calm, he turned in the large bed to face Lucy, who was sleeping like a baby. Of course, she would be able to sleep through this bombing raid. She could sleep through anything. Five alarms all playing _Everything is Awesome_ at top volume couldn't wake her up if she wanted to sleep. A rock, indeed.

Thunder rolled in and out. It was like a massive drum was being pounded on every other minute above the clouds.

It was too loud. The house was surely shaking. He knew the house would stand, he was a construction worker, he knew that a small storm like this wouldn't bring it down. Physics told him so.

So why were tears starting to fall down his face?

_I will not wake Lucy up. I will be a man and face this thing like a man would._

That was easy to do for the next five seconds, when rain harassing and pelting the window was all he had to worry about.

A sharp clap struck, followed by peals and peals of blunt thunder like punches to the gut.

A thick strip of lightning struck, illuminating the room like sunlight. In the brief flash, he caught sight of his face in the window, petrified and weeping. That didn't help. He wanted it to be morning. Morning, afternoon, evening, anything. He was fine with storms if they were during the _day!_

He flipped over in bed. Lucy was still snoring. How did she do it?

Reaching over, he took his time wrapping his arms around her waist so as not to wake her up. A sigh escaped his lips. Better. She was warm, like a heated blanket or a fire after coming in from shoveling snow. He nestled his head in her hair. Holding her made him feel better; safer.

"Mph-Uhm...Ems?"

Really? Applauding thunder and gunshot lightning couldn't wake her up, but hugging her did? He could never figure her out.

"Uh…hi," he replied.

Another bomb of thunder mixed with a splash of lighting crashed to Earth. The rain picked up speed, and Emmet forgot any training he had, instead shutting his eyes so he wouldn't see the window break.

Emmet held her tighter. "Luc-Lucy, I'm scared."

Lucy woke herself up at the sound of his whimpering voice. "Ems? Are you ok?"

"Hold me, please."

Lucy pushed herself up in bed, propped up by her elbows to watch the storm for a moment; the rain attacked their windows like zombies, viciously pounding at the glass.

She turned her focus to Emmet. Her heart broke at the sight of him, crying and shaking. "Come here, it's ok," she whispered, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him against her. He was warm.

"Thanks," he mumbled, hugging her tightly. Most would've found it too tight, but Lucy couldn't stop the smile from invading her face. She was needed. He needed her...and she liked it.

"I'm right here, don't worry." She started rubbing his back as means of calming him and making sure he would stay in her arms.

Emmet nodded. "I'm sorry..." his face grew redder than blood at the apology he uttered.

Lucy smiled softly. "Don't be. It's ok."

"Thanks."

Emmet clung to her as the storm battered at their window. He loved her so much. She was so good to him, who else would ever comfort him like this? He couldn't imagine life without her. "Hey, Lucy?" he murmured, finally peeking up to smile at her.

She held him tighter, resting her head on his. "Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The two remained wrapped in each other's arms for who knows how long. The storm didn't relent, it didn't increase or decrease in rage, but Emmet wasn't as afraid. He couldn't be, wrapped up in his girlfriend like that.

A few minutes later, a knock just reached the Lucy's ears from the door. "Who..." she mumbled. She had been falling asleep, the knock barely woke her up, as opposed to Emmet, who was sound asleep in her arms.

The door peeked open, and a pink, square head poked out. "Emmet? Lucy?"

Lucy smiled at Unikitty, whimpering and making the cutest face from behind the door. "Come on in."


	6. Love of My Life

**A/N: Thank you SO much for the reviews! This is the one with Gail I've been promising, it's nice and long, I'm a little worried if it's good tho. Oh, and I LOVE the requests, they just may take a little while for me to do since I have other ones in progress. THANKS, you're all AWESOME!**

"Emmet!" Lucy shouted from the kitchen over a cake. "Are you coming? I'm not waiting for you!"

Emmet finally burst out of the living room into the kitchen. "I'm here, I'm here! Thanks for waiting!"

She rolled her eyes. "I almost didn't. Are you ready?"

"Definitely."

See, in the home of Emmet, Lucy and Unikitty, no one could eat sweets without Unikitty taking her 'tax', being whatever sugary pastry you had, she swiped half of. The Unikitty Tax was something they had learned to live with, and get around.

Like today.

"I can't believe we actually got her out of the house," Lucy admitted, cutting up the cake into slices too big for either of them to finish. "What did you tell her, anyway?"

Emmet shrugged, handing her two plates. "I didn't need to tell her anything, she was going to hang out with Sweet Mayhem and Benny, so I just told her that she could spend the whole day with her." He watched as Lucy plopped a large slice of chocolate cake on his plate. It was rich, moist, and full to bursting with ice cream between layers. The icing was home-made and handed down from generation to generation in Emmet's family, a melt-in-your mouth chocolate buttercream.

Atop the cake were mounds of chocolate chips, cookie crumbles, and ganache. Lucy was in charge of that part, and in Emmet's opinion, had done a great job.

She put her slice down. "We've got to eat this fast, she can probably smell it from Sweet's place."

Emmet was already eating his. "Huh?"

Lucy laughed, wiping a fluff of frosting from his face, then licking it. "Yum."

The pair ate for the next fifteen minutes, laughing and talking uninterrupted.

The doorbell rang.

Lucy groaned. "No, five more minutes!"

Emmet giggled. "You sound like you do when I try to wake you up early."

She rolled her eyes and gently nudged Emmet towards the door. "Go get the door, then shoo whoever it is away."

He leaned forward, giving her a sweet kiss before walking off with the cutest grin. "Got it!

Lucy smiled softy at him as he left. She wouldn't change a thing about their life. Well, except for a certain ring that someone wears after answering a certain question…

_Listen to me, I sound like some princess waiting for a prince to propose._

She wasn't too far off.

Her thoughts of weddings and a fairy-tale proposal were interrupted when she heard Emmet open the door. Expecting to hear Unikitty, the voice she _did _hear sat in her stomach like expired food. She didn't like it.

"Uh, hi?" Emmet sounded like he was looking at a complete stranger, but Lucy barely noticed.

"Hi, Emmet! It's great to see you!"

_That _was what Lucy didn't like.

After Lucy sat down her plate of half-finished cake, she walked through the kitchen to the living room, where Emmet was greeting a plain-looking girl–oh, never mind.

Lucy _almost_ recognized the woman. "Uh, hi?" It was a question, and she tried to force a bit of venomous bitterness into her voice for good measure.

Emmet stepped away, and Lucy was forced to look at the woman.

She was thin, short, and had cotton-caramel hair down to her shoulders. She wore light makeup that gave her a natural hue. Her clothes resembled something out of a teen fashion magazine for an Easter special; a pastel pink crop top over a blinding white tank with light blue jeans. Lucy suddenly felt somewhat dark compared to this woman's appearance.

Lucy's dirty look contrasted with Gail's peppy, cheerleader smile. "Hi! You must be Lucy." She took Emmet holding the door wide open as a sign to come in, and shook Lucy's hand. "Emmet and I used to work together on the old construction site years ago."

Emmet slapped his forehead. "Oh, Gail! Now I remember!" He reached over and gave her a big hug, and Lucy didn't like how _eagerly_ Gail responded.

_Get your hands off him._

Was Lucy protective? Maybe.

Lucy walked over to Emmet's side, slipping her hand in his like they had done so many times. His hand was always so familiar to her. Was it odd that she could be in the most terrifying place, but if she held his hand, she wasn't afraid? And if she was at a party without him, she craved him like oxygen.

Shooting Gail a look that couldn't be read as anything but jealousy, she said, "Wow, I'm surprised you two remember each other, it's been over five years."

Gail's smile was sweet, and she looked to Emmet like a shy new kid in school. "Oh, I'd never forget Emmet."

"Uh, but didn't you not even know who I was when I worked with you?" He thought back to the video that nearly crushed what was left of his spirits back when Bad/Good Cop had to interrogate him. "You didn't know I worked with you."

Lucy forgot about her fiery jealousy for a moment at the scab of hurt in Emmet's voice. Now she remembered Gail, Emmet had told her she was one of the few girls he had known before Lucy.

Gail shook her head, letting her fluffy hair flow freely in the air. "Emmet, I just said that to help! I knew they would interrogate you, and I thought if they thought you were a nobody, they wouldn't hurt you!" She moved closer, almost shoving Lucy out of the way. Sliding her hands onto Emmet's upper arms, she smiled. "I would never forget about you, Emmet."

Lucy huffed. She didn't believe this woman for a minute. And she was sure Emmet didn't either. I mean, who would take that off-the-cuff story seriously?

Emmet's face formed an already forgiving smile. "Really?"

"Of course!"

Reaching over, he grabbed her in another hug. He was blissfully unaware of his dangerously-close-to-exploding nuclear girlfriend next to him. "Thanks, Gail! Come on in, we were just having cake!"

Ok, this is too much, Lucy decided. "Ems?" She used his nickname for effect. "Can I talk to you?"

Emmet nodded, his classic bright smile on his face. "Sure, Lucy!"

Lucy more-or-less yanked him into the kitchen where Gail couldn't hear them. "I can't believe you!" Lucy had the art of whisper-yelling down to a science, Emmet noticed.

Emmet's face fell. "Why? What'd I do?"

Like a storm vanishing in the morning, her anger subsided. He was so apologetic, and he didn't even know why she was upset.

_Of course, he has to be so adorable. Is it even POSSIBLE to be mad at him? I don't know if anyone's ever done it!_

She had two choices; open up and tell him why she was upset, or pretend nothing was wrong. Of course, Emmet would understand if she told him. It would probably get rid of Gail, too. If he knew something was making her uncomfortable, he would stop it immediately. It would be better to tell him and be honest.

"It's nothing. I just…I got a little worried about if you were still…y'know, bothered by what Gail did." Oh, the lying. She hated lying to him. It left a taste in her mouth like antibiotics.

Emmet sighed. "That's good, I was worried you were really mad at me." Noticing his girlfriend's half-enthusiastic state, he offered a soft smile of reassurance. "You know I love you, right?" He reached forward and laid gentle kiss on his girlfriend's cheek. "I could never, ever love anyone as much as you."

Lucy blushed beneath her freckles. "I love you too, babe."

She gave him a mischievous smile, one that he knew all too well. "What's the face for?" He asked, despite knowing what was coming.

She shrugged, playing up an innocence that he found too adorable for words. "Nothing. I just love you."

He played along. "Alright, should I go?" He took a step away, even looking out the window for effect.

Lucy laughed like a child. "Get back here, you." Grabbing his vest, she pulled him into a kiss that sent her heart pumping blood like she was running a marathon, complimented well by her hot face and flushing cheeks.

Emmet wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, nearly lifting her off the ground. He was lucky, alright.

A few minutes later they both pulled apart, trying to regain their stolen breath. "Come on, we've got to get Gail out of here so we can get to the cake," Lucy joked. Well, she meant the first part; she wanted Gail gone. Something about that tan-haired woman bothered Lucy, and it _wasn't _just that she climbed all over Emmet like she owned him.

Emmet nodded. "You got it."

#

Lucy sat on the couch, a few minutes after Gail had left. That woman stuck around like gum, and Emmet just didn't have the guts (or the harshness) to ask/order her to leave. He just couldn't do it. He was so sweet, kind, and caring.

That's why Lucy took matters into her own hands.

However, even the Master of Kicking People Out (as Unikitty had dubbed her one day–a story for another time) couldn't get Gail out. Emmet had once told Lucy that Gail was known for being perky. She had to agree, if perky meant overbearing, annoying, overeager, and maddening. What was even worse was he was seeing her again, after she had strong-armed him into a 'friend-date'

Yeah, SURE.

"Hey, Lucy!" Unikitty opened the door, letting herself into the house. "How was your day?"

Lucy shrugged. "Ok. Yours?"

"Great! Sweet is super fun, and guess what?" She sat with Lucy on the couch, still covered in a bit of glitter from whatever she had done that day.

"What?"

Unikitty giggled. "I think Benny has a little crush on Sweet!"

Lucy smiled softly. That was a relationship she could support. It was also a bit more...conventional than the Batman and Queen Watervra thing. I mean, who knew Batman who fall for _her?_

"That's great," Lucy said. As much as she forced a chipper voice, Unikitty knew her and what real happiness sounded like.

"What's wrong?" Unikitty asked. Curling up on the couch next to her best friend, she added, "Did something happen today?"

Lucy looked at Unikitty. No way was she backing down, so what was the harm in confiding in her? "Well, do you know Gail?" After Unikitty nodded, she continued, "Yeah, she paid us a visit."

"Oh." Unikitty looked at with sympathy one gives to someone who got a dent in their shiny new car. "You mean Emmet's first crush?"

Oh.

Lucy's eyes bulged and nearly shot lasers. "His _what?_"

Unikitty emitted a nervous giggle, shifting her glance from a dangerously-close-to-exploding Lucy. "Uh, yeah...he kind of had a crush on her."

"When? How? _WHY?_"

The questions Lucy was asking were coming too fast and too hard for Unikitty to handle. "You should ask him!"

Lucy wasn't going to have that. "Unikitty..."

"Oh, fine!" Unikitty gave in, seeing that if she didn't tell, Lucy would probably never speak to her again, or worse, stop buying her cookies. "Emmet told me a few years back, when we were having a talk about his past, that Gail was one of the few women who ever paid him any attention. He developed a bit of a crush on her, alright?"

Lucy phased into astonishment as she fell back into the couch. "I had no idea...why didn't he tell me?"

Unikitty raised an eyebrow. "Wyldstyle, why would he tell his _girlfriend_ about his ex-crush?"

Lucy pouted. She guessed that made _some_ sense, but...still. The fact that Emmet had romantic interests before her was…plausible, she guessed, but that didn't make it any nicer to think about. The thought was enough to made her heart want to throw up. "I guess."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Unikitty said. She gave her best friend a smile. "Emmet would never, ever do anything like that, you're the only one for him."

"What?" Lucy turned to Unikitty, climbing out a swirl of thoughts. "Sorry, I'm thinking."

Gulp.

"Wyldstyle, don't get any ideas."

Lucy stood up, a look on her face that Unikitty was a little afraid of. "Don't worry, I only have one idea."

Unikitty buried her head in the couch. "I want cake."

#

Emmet loved mornings.

Now, while it's true that he loved almost _everything, _he treasured his mornings like a golden record of Everything is Awesome.

So, when he woke up that morning, he was a little confused to see no one across from him. Normally when he woke up, he was greeted by Lucy snoring soundly, cuddled up underneath blankets. "Lucy?" His voice was still groggy from sleep, but his paranoia started to set in as he woke up.

"Lucy?" He called louder. Nothing.

Hopping out of bed, he ran to the kitchen. Maybe she was making breakfast?

Nope.

He stared at the empty ocean-themed kitchen. Where was she?

A sunshine-yellow sticky note caught his eyes on the fridge. He ran over the wooden floor like it was a sprinting track, nearly slamming into the fridge. He read the note:

_Emmet,_

_You were probably pretty weirded out to not see me this morning...sorry about that. Unikitty and I went out for a while. I won't be back until later, I know you're seeing Gail today anyway. Love ya._

_Lucy. _

"Oh, that...doesn't make sense." Emmet reread the note. Since when did Lucy go 'out'? Unikitty, sure, 'going out' was like a hobby to her, so that made sense. But Lucy?

He took another look at the note, unaware at the frown that had sneaked onto his face. He reread it, imagining her voice. She was so pretty.

"Well, I guess I have the day to myself!" Emmet announced, putting the note back on the fridge. What did most men do when their girlfriends were gone? He...didn't really know.

He had lived alone since moving out of his parent's place at eighteen for a college dorm room, so he was used to solitude before meeting Lucy. And by 'meeting' he meant being whisked/kidnapped on an adventure with a gang of rebel Master Builders.

Maybe Benny wanted to do something! Racing to the phone, he clicked Benny's number on speed-dial. "Hey, Benny! What are you up to? You wanna go grab coffee?"

"Oh, sorry, Emmet," Benny replied. "Sweet and I are going down to the Spaceship museum."

Emmet rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, ok. Sounds fun!"

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm ok. Have fun!"

"I will! Why don't you hang out with Wyldstyle, she's always up for something!" With that, he hung up.

Emmet stared at the phone. He knew Metal Beard would be busy with cleaning his ship today, and Batman wouldn't really want to hang out with him.

Dare he call Lucy? Maybe just for a quick, sweet call to see if she was ok. That would work.

He had clicked her number before even deciding to do so.

It rang.

Once...

Twice...

_Please, PLEASE pick up, Lucy._

Thrice...

_"Hey, I'm busy, leave a message and either I'll call you back or I'll ask Emmet to. Bye."_

_Dang it._

"Hey, Lucy!" Emmet tried to imitate his usual tone so she wouldn't worry...but it was really hard. "I saw you're note, I just wanted to call and see if you were ok. So... I guess I'll go. Uh, love you! You're the best, I love you a lot! Bye! Love you!"

He finally hung up.

Man, he missed her.

What did he used to do when he lived alone?

Well, he woke up, followed the instructions, worked, and watched TV. He was already awake, didn't follow instructions, didn't have work today, so that just left TV. He wasn't seeing Gail until later, so it wasn't a terrible option…

After grabbing a quick breakfast of toast and eggs, he sat down on the couch and clicked on the TV.

A man on screen plopped on his couch, smiling widely. "This is GREAT! Now that my wife is out of the house, I can finally be alone and relax."

Emmet winced and changed the channel, falling on a commercial.

"Are you alone, sad, and depressed without your girlfriend? Well, try this new RAZOR!"

Sigh. Next...

A talk show was on, showing several well-dressed women all sitting around a table laughing. One blonde spoke through her laughter, "Seriously, sometimes I just need to get out of the house and get away from my husband. I mean, I need my alone time too–"

Emmet slammed his head down on the plate. "Lucy, I miss you."

#

"Wyldstyle, I hope you know what you're doing…" Unikitty quietly told Lucy as they walked down to Emmet's construction site.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Unikitty, this it gonna work, trust me. Have I ever been wrong?"

Thinking back to Lucy's plan for Emmet to be 'tougher', and when she had dated Batman, Unikitty avoided her gaze. "Well..."

"Just trust me."

Walking into the construction site, they were greeted by a man in a similar uniform to Emmet's. "Uh, you can't be here, we're in the middle of bulldozing something."

Ignoring the crumb-covered man's request, she asked, "Does Gail work here?"

The man shook his head. "Nah, she quit a while ago. She works as an accountant down at Block Inc. a mile downtown."

Lucy nodded, thanked the guy, and started walking while admiring the city. It held so many memories for her. Across from where she stood was the street where she and Emmet had FINALLY held hands…the ice cream parlor a block away was where they went every Friday…

_Beep! BEEP!_

Lucy silenced her phone without another look.

"Uh, Wyldstyle?" Unikitty asked while they walked. "What is your plan, exactly?"

They rounded a corner, but Unikitty's eyes weren't on where she was going; she was more focused on a gut-feeling something was going to go wrong with Lucy's plan. Her words weren't very comforting, either. "Don't worry, it'll work."

Unikitty pouted. "I didn't ask if it would work, I wanna know what it IS!"

"It's very simple. I have to make sure Gail never goes near Emmet again. Now, what's the simplest way to do something like that?" Lucy looked to Unikitty as they stopped to cross the street.

Unikitty shrugged. "I'd tell Emmet how I felt and ask him not to see her."

Huh, an interesting concept, Lucy noticed. Too late now. "I was thinking something a bit more..." she searched for the right word as they crossed the street towards a tower rivaling President Business'. "...drastic. I'm going to give her my ex's number, Archer. He's looking for a girlfriend, and I'm looking to get her out of here." Her phone buzzed again, and she shut it off. It was probably just Sweet or Queen Watevra.

"Wyldstyle..." Unikitty warned. She nudged her best friend and stepped onto the sidewalk. "I don't like the sound of that."

Lucy shrugged, opening the door. "I do. Come on."

They walked in, greeted by chrome, metal, and shining glass everywhere they looked. It was like they stepped into the digital age itself. Everything was cleaned to perfection, glittering with spotless beauty like a bubble.

Lucy walked up to the front desk. "Can I see Gail?"

The redhead secretary, who didn't really care why Lucy was here or who she was, barely looked up from the computer. "She's not in right now."

Lucy raised an eyebrow, _again _ignoring her buzzing phone. "She said she had to work today. Why'd she leave?"

The secretary found the time to roll her eyes. "She said something about going to meet a, 'cute guy'" she made quotation marks with her hands for effect. "Sorry, can't help you...uh, Miss?"

Unikitty turned to where Lucy had been standing, now an empty space.

She sighed. "I need a vacation."

#

Lucy raced home faster than she ever had, running and bumping into people on the streets and ignoring Batman's call for help with fixing his computer.

Her phone buzzed for the tenth time that day. _Honestly_, couldn't she catch a break?

Lifting it up, her feet halted in the grass near their house at Emmet's name on her phone. She quickly opened up the last message from him.

_"Hey, Lucy! Sorry to call you again, but I wanted to let you know Gail came over early, we're going to see a movie. Love you so much, be back in a bit!"_

Unikitty finally caught up to Lucy, panting and sweating until collapsing at her feet in defeat and exhaustion. "Why…did...you…leave?"

Lucy fell back onto the child's school shade of green grass. "I blew it. I had the best guy in the world, and I BLEW IT! They'll go to a movie, then lunch, then dinner, then he'll break up with me, they'll get married, and before you know it I'm Aunt Lucy to his kids, Joan, Marcy and Jake!" She turned to Unikitty, who was looking at Wyldstyle with wide eyes and one eyebrow raised like Lucy had come out in a tutu. "I don't want to be an aunt, Unikitty!"

Unikitty stared at her. "Uh, you ok, Wyldstyle?"

"I've lost him."

"No, you haven't. What are you talking about?"

Lucy propped herself in the dewy grass on her elbows. She felt like a kid after getting back three failing grades – depressed. "He went to the movies with Gail. That's why she left work. That's why he was calling me."

Unikitty nudged her best friend and gave her a smile, one that Lucy couldn't help but feel a little better after seeing. "Oh, don't worry. When Emmet comes back you'll fix this, right?"

Lucy started playing with the blades of grass, weaving them around each other and twirling them until they snapped. "Unikitty, I miss him."

Gaining some traction in her confidence, Unikitty straightened and stared at the shell of Lucy's former rock-solid go-get-em attitude. "Lucy, have you learned you're lesson about avoiding talking to Emmet about these things?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. She knew what Unikitty was getting at, but she didn't like it. "Yeah," she mumbled begrudgingly under her breath.

"Have you learned that revenge is not the way to go?"

"Sure…"

"And what are you going to do now?"

Lucy shifted her glance towards Unikitty, who was appearing more and more officious with every second. "I don't know." Lucy resembled a teenager on Monday.

Unikitty rolled her eyes. "You're going to apologize and explain everything to Emmet as soon as he gets home, right?"

Lucy opened her mouth to protest…then shut it. "Fine, but he's going to hate me." How could he _not? _As soon as she told him he would think she didn't trust him, and that would kill him. She could just imagine his face falling from a massive, happy grin to a disappointed, depressed frown, a tear slipping down his cheek…

She shot a despairing glance at Unikitty. "I miss him."

"Emmet loves you. Don't worry."

Easier said than done…

#

Emmet wasn't sure how to feel about this.

He was in the movie theater, sitting next to Gail. She was perky, like usual, but kept...hanging over him. He didn't like it. Only Lucy was allowed to hold his hand like that, kiss him on the cheek, that stuff. Sure, he may have had a _small _crush on her in the past, but he didn't have one now. Far from it, if anything, being around other women made him miss Lucy.

Gail had chosen a romantic comedy, one that made him miss his girlfriend like he had only felt when she was taken to the Systar System. Every time someone held hands, his heart cracked.

Why was he feeling so weird? It's not like he didn't go the movies with other people, he went with Benny, Metal Beard, Batman, he even went with other girls sometimes, Unikitty, Sweet Mayhem, and Queen Watevra once.

Maybe...maybe he felt odd because he was with a girl who wasn't a friend.

So, why was he here?

Maybe he just missed Lucy. Maybe he liked proving to Gail, part of his past, that he _was_ interesting, special, and something to be noticed.

"This is great, isn't it?" Gail whispered, nudging him with her elbow.

"Heh, yeah..." Emmet faked a chuckle.

"Lola," The man on screen pleaded, taking the hand of a blue-haired woman who looked pretty angry to Emmet. "Please forgive me, Gertrude meant NOHTING to me!"

She turned to him with flashing eyes. "Eddy, you cheated on me! How could you?"

Eddy stood up with tears pooling in his eyes and pouring down his face. "I'm sorry! I was confused, I... I needed to prove–"

"Oh, don't give me that!" She shouted. "I can never forgive you for this!"

Emmet couldn't take it anymore. "Gail," he whispered after tearing his eyes from the screen. "I have to go, and I can't see you anymore. Sorry."

Gail looked him up and down. "What, you got to go see that stupid girlfriend of yours?"

Stupid? "Hey, Lucy is not stupid!" He defended. He stood up in the theater, ignoring people's stares. "She's the most amazing, pretty, wonderful person I've ever met. I feel guilty seeing you like this, and I can't do it anymore."

He had expected Gail to look upset, but not...furious. "Oh, Emmet! You really still louse things up, don't you?" She threw down her popcorn bucket. "You think I was interested in _you?_ You're _BORING_! I just needed the fame, being CEO doesn't come with immediate recognition, y'know."

"So, you really didn't know who I was?" He didn't care about Gail, but...he thought they were at least friends. "Back when I was interrogated, you didn't remember me?"

She snorted. "Of course not."

Emmet stopped, taking a moment to consider the facts. Gail obviously didn't care about him, why should he care about what she thought of him?

Giving her his best impression of a 'Lucy smirk' he said somewhat smugly, "Well, sorry to hear that, Gail. I guess you'll just have to find another nobody. After all, it's not like you could get any better."

He was a kid on the run from teachers as he bolted in peals of laughter out of the theater, leaving Gail rolling her eyes.

_Wait 'till Lucy here's about this!_

#

"Lucy? You home yet?" His voice echoed through a smile, but he struggled to keep the bouquet of blue hydrangeas and pink roses behind his back, along with the romantic-action movie he had picked up.

Lucy walked out of the kitchen. "Hey, Ems. Can we talk?" She noticed the bouquet and DVD as he shut and locked the door. "Uh, what's all that?"

Emmet grinned brightly. "Happy...uh, Day! I missed you, and I just love you so much, I thought we could watch a movie!" He handed her the flowers and movie. He caught sight of the nervous but melancholy expression on her face. "Hey, you ok?"

Lucy sighed. Did he have to be so sweet and caring? That only made her feel guiltier. "Thanks, Emmet. Look, I have to tell you something, and I don't want you to interrupt, alright?"

Emmet nodded and watched while she put down the flowers and movies. "Sure, Lucy."

Lucy took in a deep breath. "Emmet, I hated how Gail was acting around you. I was jealous and I didn't like seeing you happy with another girl, and Unikitty told me how you used to have a crush on her, and I didn't like hearing about that, and I went down to the city to try to get her away from you, then I found out you went to the movies and... I'm sorry. I should trust you...I'm sorry–"

She would've gotten farther, but he was kissing her, and that made it kind of difficult.

She immediately wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer and deeper into her embrace. He always kissed the same, warmly, carefully, and with passion that made her wonder how any other woman got by. She loved him, alright.

He finally pulled away, with a few tears in his eyes. "Lucy, I love you."

A laugh escaped, and she rested her forehead against his. "I love you, too."

Emmet frowned. "You're not mad at me for going to the movies, right?"

Lucy gave him a gentle kiss through her smile. "Of course not. You didn't do anything!"

"Oh yeah," he giggled. "Should we watch the movie?"

Lucy nodded. "Definitely"

Unikitty stepped out of the kitchen, smiling at her best friends. "Everything ok?"

"Yup," Emmet responded, still in a lovesick daze as he stared into Lucy's eyes. He knew he was a romantic sap, but who cares?

Unikitty sighed and smiled. "Good, now things can get back to normal!"

Just as the three were about to sit down, Benny burst through the door, close to tears. "Sweet…Sweet Mayhem and I had a fight!"

Lucy slapped her forehead. "Oh _brother._"


	7. Jealousy Is As Jealousy Was

**A/N: AW, you guys are all so sweet with the reviews and requests! This is the reverse of the last chapter, with a jealous Emmet, tee hee. This one might be too long, sorry. So, question; if I wrote a continual Emmetstyle story (I have the plot already) would anyone read it? Oh, I have a poll up in my profile for this oneshot collection. Ok, NOW the announcements are over. ENJOY!**

"Do you _have _to go?" Emmet watched as his girlfriend slowly, very slowly got herself ready, brushing her hair in its usual ponytail.

"Emmet," she groaned. She wasn't mad at him in the least, he was just making it so, _so _hard to leave him. The absolutely devastated and heartbroken look on his face would disappear just a split second _after_ she always turned to him, so she was forced to see it. "I have to, I don't want to though."

Emmet kicked his legs repeatedly on the bed, up and down, up and down. "When will you be back?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"UGH!"

Emmet collapsed like a card in the wind back onto the bed. How was he supposed to sleep without her? He had gotten so used to having her curled up in his arms, wrapping her arms around his chest, his head resting on hers…how was he supposed to live like this?!

Lucy stole a glance at her distraught boyfriend. The only problem with having such a devoted boyfriend was it made it _impossible _to leave him. He thought this was breaking her heart, it was killing hers! What was she supposed to do tonight, lay her head against and hug a pillow?

She was shocked with herself at the anger in her hands as she slammed down the brush, turned to him and starting kiss him like they were saying goodbye for months.

He sat up to pull her closer, letting her wordlessly tell him how much she was going to miss him.

Lucy was, unfortunately, a pretty important figure in the new city. Because of this, she had to travel to the other side of the city, about five hours away to take care of some business and election 'junk' as Emmet had called it. All of Emmet's important stuff happened close to home, but hers was impossibly far away. So far away she needed to stay overnight.

Emmet couldn't come, it was an _invitation, _and he wasn't invited.

Just as she started to wrap her arms around his neck, the doorbell rung like uninvited in-laws.

Lucy pulled back, trying to not cry and be strong…but it wasn't really working. She sniffed and wiped away the tears on her hoodie sleeve. She was still resting on the bed in his arms, her legs crossed underneath her. "You're impossible, I can't even leave you!" She finally let out a sad laugh. "I'm gonna miss you, Ems."

Emmet wrapped his arms tightly around her, burying his head in the crook of her neck. He could smell her perfume; the same one she had worn when he met her. It was a strange blend of sweet strawberry and dark, bitter chocolate. He never got tired of it. "I'm gonna miss you more."

"Lucy?! You ready?" A voice came from the door, now knocking like a drum.

Emmet pulled back, slid off the bed and helped her down. "Come on, you're gonna knock 'em dead, right?"

She grabbed her bag and followed him at a snail's pace to the front door. "Yeah, the speech isn't that hard, it's just that the whole place is going to be filled with peppy girls all yelling about stuff I don't care about, I don't even know why they asked me."

"Uh, because you're awesome!"

She gave him a small smile. "Thanks, Ems."

They both turned to the door, staring at them like the Kragle. "I'll call you when I get there, alright?"

Emmet nodded. "Ok."

"WAIT, THAT WAS TODAY?!" Unikitty fell all the way down the stairs in a frenzy, landing at the feet of her roommates. "You're leaving?" Her whimper was almost as pitiful as Emmet's, if that was possible.

The look of sympathy she gave Unikitty didn't help much. "Yeah, I'll be back tomorrow morning."

Unikitty pouted. "Not cool, Wyldstyle."

Emmet slapped his forehead, eyes wide. "Wait, I almost forgot! Stay here, just one minute!" He gave Lucy a quick kiss before running off to grab who-knows-what while the girls stared at his retreating form.

Lucy took the moment to whisper to Unikitty, "Unikitty, listen, I need you to occupy Emmet while I'm gone. He's going to miss me, and I don't want him to cry himself into an oblivion." She neglected to mention that she would be doing the same…

Unfortunately for Lucy, Unikitty knew her a bit too well to let her get away with it. She stared up at Lucy skeptically, and with good reason. "Like you'll be any better."

Lucy smirked. "Fair enough. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

Nodding, Unikitty gave her best friend a hug before hearing the familiar 'snap' of a camera clicking from behind them. "Emmet," Lucy said in a playful tone, her cheeks heating up at the blush on her boyfriend's face.

"I'll let you two say goodbye." Unikitty nudged Emmet, waved goodbye to Lucy, and disappeared off to her room.

Lucy looked up from the floor, meeting Emmet's gaze as he spoke, "Here, I brought you this."

He handed her a small picture of the two of them, sitting on the swings at a park. That was one of her favorite days of her whole life. "I love it," she murmured, lost in the snapshot. "Thanks.

It was a struggle much too hard for Lucy to force herself to look at him. She didn't know what to compare the feeling to except pure, murderous heartbreak. "I'll call you, alright?"

Emmet nodded, lifting his hand up to stroke her cheek, nearly crying when she leaned into his touch. Being in love was so hard! "This is almost as bad as when you were captured."

Lucy smiled weakly. Why did it feel like her heart was going to throw up? Was this what love felt like? Was this the part of love greeting cards ignored? "See ya later, alligator."

Emmet's tears fought against his willpower like Washington's army. "After a while, crocodile."

Leaning forward, he caught her in a lingering, passionate, heart-warming kiss that almost sent Lucy falling backwards. How was she supposed to go through a day without him?

She clung to him, pulling him closer and closer until shoving her hands into his hair, messing it up and deepening the kiss.

The doorbell rang out again like a school bell. "LUCY! It's time to go!"

_No, I don't want to go. Let me stay._

He could be the strong one, he mused, if only he could care less for her, about her. If he could bring himself to be the detached one, maybe her departure wouldn't be so painful. He knew it was hurting her to leave him; the way her arms tightened around him like she was refusing to go. Loving was difficult, but loving the love if his life was torture in these moments.

Thinking only of making her life easier, he pulled back. "I love you, Lucy." Like a soldier saying his final goodbye to his wife, he gave her a quick kiss.

She was silent as he brushed a lock of her soft, blue hair back into its place. "Love you more, Ems." Since when was she the weak one? The one who couldn't live without him? The one who wanted nothing more but to snuggle with him by a fire and never let go?

This was absurd. It was an overnight visit. So why was her heart cracking under the pressure?

The meeting was trivial, and she wasn't needed. But she needed him, and he needed her. She could stay. Yes, she would stay. That would fix everything. She would stay and they could forget about painful goodbyes.

She opened her mouth to tell him she was staying, but he covered it with his own. She honestly didn't know how she had ever lived without him. Ignorant bliss, that's how.

Once more separating himself from her, Emmet could only stand still and watch as the love of his life turned, opened the door, walked out, and let the door slowly shut behind her.

"Emmet?" Unikitty popped out from the kitchen. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah."

It was like watching a mad scientist realize he had not the talent nor the skill to save the world. Emmet's steps were as heavy as bricks as he walked from the door to the couch. He pulled a small blue pillow to the side of the couch and climbed up like it was Mount Everest. Resting his head on the pillow and lying down, he grabbed the remote, his new best friend for the next twenty-four hours.

The gentle click of the TV filled Unikitty's ears, followed by a comment about missing pants. "You're…you're watching that?"

"Yeah."

Not good, not good. Unikitty didn't like seeing her roommate so sullen, lifeless, emotionless. "It's a beautiful day outside!" She scampered over to the blinds and drew them back, revealing hundreds of specks of dust by the sunlight. "Wanna go out and play?"

"No."

Now she was getting worried. "Well, what _do _you want to do? We can go for a walk, play outside, bake, listen to Everything is awesome, visit our friends…" Unikitty knew not how to be bored.

"No thanks."

The laughter of the show contrasting Emmet's disposition reminded Unikitty of a word that she didn't like very much;

Loneliness.

#

That night, Emmet had never felt so alone.

He was used to being alone. He had lived alone since moving out of his parents' house, if you didn't count Planty. But this...this was medieval torture.

The thing about being alone for so long is that when you finally do get friends, people surrounding you, you never want to be alone again.

That's how Emmet felt. It was like going on a roller coaster for the second time; the first time, you don't know what to expect. You are completely oblivious, and you don't know any different. The second time, you know how petrifying, how scary, how terrifying the first hill is, how bad your stomach hurts on the third drop, and how much you wanted to get off at the end. The second time, you know how bad the ride is.

This was Emmet's second ride.

He lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. He was still off to one side as if Lucy was still there, when in reality, if Lucy was there, he would be snuggling up to her and hugging her.

He missed her.

This must've been the bad side of love. The side that makes your heart ache, your head hurt, and makes you want to hide under the covers until the one you love comes back and hugs you.

Sighing, he flipped over onto his other side. He checked the time; 12:46 A.M. Would he ever get to sleep? Maybe he would just end up staying awake the whole night, his thoughts doomed to wander and frolic in the land of drifting and solitude 'till morning.

Lucy was his life. He woke up in the morning from dreams about her and went to bed cuddled up against her.

He had truly been in love since the first moment. He had never seen anyone quite like her before that point, with her dyed hair and her hoodie and her smile…

Sigh.

It was going to be a very, very long night.

#

_The next day..._

Emmet was a generally 'excited' person. He got excited for everything, seeing his friends, getting up in the morning, taking out the trash, everything. He lived life to the fullest and could find the best of any situation.

And for the past twenty-four hours, Unikitty had never seen him so depressed.

"Emmet?" She gently knocked at the white panel door to his bedroom. "Come on, time to get up, Lucy's coming back today!"

Nothing.

Unikitty had always liked how energetic Emmet was, but for the past day he had been downright pathetic. I mean, what was his plan if she ever had to go on a _week-long _trip? "Emmet, you have _got_ to get out of bed!"

Silence.

Unikitty's pastel-rose color was fading to light crimson, a sure sign that she was about to blow. Her face hardened into a glare at the door. "Emmet, get UP!"

"Unikitty?" Emmet popped up in the hallway, holding a dish of chocolate-chip pancakes. "What are you doing up?"

"AH!" Unikitty jumped back.

Emmet stared at her as she recovered. "What is it?"

"You're...alive?" Unikitty looked him up and down. He was out of his pajamas (finally) and into his usual uniform, he had a bright smile on and his hair was combed down. "What's going on? I thought you were in your bed moping?"

Emmet shook his head with his widest smile. "Nope! Lucy's coming back in approximately one hour, fifteen minutes, thirty-five seconds and sixteen milliseconds."

Unikitty had to sigh. Thank goodness that was over. "That's great, you were really depressing."

Emmet nodded as they walked into the kitchen, where Unikitty found a multitude of sweets and pastries lying about; chocolate chip-cookies covered the counters, three cheesecakes laid on the table, and at least five types of cupcakes were scattered around the kitchen. "Uh, Emmet? What the heck happened here?" Her words traveled through a shaky an increasingly giddy smile that she had no control over. Her eyes even started to resembled sprinkles, a trait Emmet found odd but cute.

Emmet shrugged. "I thought I'd make breakfast! You like it?"

"Hm?" Unikitty looked up from a plate, her face now smeared with chocolate frosting. "What'd you say?"

Emmet laughed at his roommate. "Never mind."

They two picked and ate from the sweets, occasionally chatting about their ideas for the day for when Lucy got back, which mainly included spending the day with their friends and watching too many movies that night, complete with popcorn, snacks and drinks.

Unikitty stopped her giggling at the day's plan when she caught sight of Emmet, sighing at his phone. "What's up, Emmet?"

Emmet looked up from his phone, where he was texting Lucy for the fifth time. She had stopped returning his texts a few hours ago, which was...odd. "When was the last time you texted Lucy?"

Unikitty thought back, popping another cookie in her mouth. "Uh, yesterday. Why?"

Emmet struggled to keep his composure in check. Lucy always responded to his texts almost immediately, what if something was wrong? "She's not responding. You...you think she's ok?"

Unikitty nodded. "Lucy's tough, she's fine. She's probably just really busy."

Emmet paused. His girlfriend was certainly a force to be reckoned with, and taking care of herself wasn't a problem. The facts were there, yelling at him not to worry, but his heart was just sweating with anxiety. "Uh...yeah, you're right." He nodded, like agreeing to something he knew in the back of his head was wrong. "She's probably fin–"

"Emmet!" Lucy called from behind the door, knocking on it urgently. "I'm home!"

Unikitty had rarely seen anyone move so fast.

He was like a racecar on the climax of his speed. He nearly tripped over his own foot twice running to the door, and still crashed into it rather painfully. "Lucy?" He asked, almost unbelieving as he yanked open the door.

Lucy smiled at her boyfriend. "Emmet..."

His heart pounded. He started to cry. She was here! The night before had been incredibly painful, and now she was here! Home! "Lucy!" He moved to hug her, but she stepped to the side and he nearly topped to the ground.

"...I'd like you to meet Archer. Archer Gunn."

Emmet turned his view to her right, where a _guy_ stood, smiling like an idiot, in Emmet's biased opinion.

"Hey!" Archer greeted, waving wildly.

He smiled like he had just graduated college. His clothes were neat and pressed, and Emmet felt odd for wearing a construction uniform next to him. He looked like he stepped out a Florida resort; pristine, pearly white collared shirt matched with khaki shorts. His hair was the type of blond you can only get out of a dye-can, but it was combed over just like Emmet's. Below the hair were round, spring-grass green glasses. He looked as innocent as a first-grader with the confidence of the most popular senior in high school.

"Heh..." Emmet chuckled nervously. What was going on? "Uh…where did you…you meet?"

Lucy smiled at Archer, _putting her hand on his shoulder_. Little did she know how much Emmet wanted to punch a hole through the wall. "I met him down at the meeting!"

Archer waved again. "Hi, Emmet! Lucy's told me tons about you, I think we'll be friends!"

Emmet wasn't so sure about that.

Ignoring Archer's extension of friendship, Emmet turned to Lucy. "So, uh, how did the meeting go?"

Lucy walked in, followed by Archer. She failed to notice that Emmet was about to either melt or blow up, and even he wasn't sure which. "It was actually really great, I hated everyone there except Archer, and..." she started laughing, turning to Archer. "Remember in the coffee room, when we both..."

He started giggling, running a hand sheepishly over his hair. "Oh yeah! That was hilarious!"

"What was hilarious?" Emmet piped up.

Lucy waved him off and threw her bag down to the floor. "You had to be there, Emmet."

_Not again. Please, not again._

It was happening again. He was back to six years ago, when he was the guy no one knew or remembered, always a step behind, a step out of place. Fitting in so well no one noticed him. He was always trying to get caught up, trying to figure out what everyone else was doing, trying to be like everyone else. And now...it was happening again. His girlfriend, the love of his life, was a step ahead of him.

The room started spinning, he had to grab the side of the couch. Alone, the walls were closing in. He had no friends. He lived alone...no one liked him...

_BREATHE!_

"Lucy, you're back!" Unikitty saved Emmet by merely by her presence.

Emmet breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't alone. He had friends. "Thank you, Unikitty," he murmured under his breath.

Lucy smiled to Unikitty, and nothing more. "Hey."

Unikitty stopped short. "Uh, hi?" She shot a look to Emmet as if to say, 'What's going on with her?'

Emmet shrugged in reply. "So, Lucy..." he began, not having a conversation but desperately needing one. "...have...are...did you miss me?"

Lucy nodded, finally paying him more attention. Her eyes were sweet and reminded him of ice cream after a hard day at school. "Of course, Emmet."

Archer started laughing. "She kept talking about you the whole time."

Emmet sighed, not even realizing he was doing it out loud. "Really?"

Archer nodded. "Yeah, she told us all about the crazy stuff you've done, like that double-decker couch."

Something about Archer's sentence made Emmet feel like he should be apologizing for the idea.

Even Unikitty could feel the sting in the comment. She moved over to Emmet's side and whispered, "What's going on with Lucy?"

Emmet watched with tear-swollen eyes as Lucy started talking to Archer about something that happened at the meeting. "I don't know...Unikitty, I don't like it."

"I'm going to get him out of here," Unikitty promised.

While that didn't sound good, Emmet wasn't in a position to argue.

Unikitty was nothing if not persistent.

"Hey, Wyldstyle!" Unikitty shouted, rushing up to her roommate in a frenzy and grabbing her hand. "Come on, I want to show you something!"

"What?" Lucy looked at Unikitty suspiciously, with good reason.

"You'll see!" Unikitty started leading her into the hallway, shooting a glance at Emmet and a jerk in Archer's direction. Her message of, 'Get him out of here' was clear as day.

Emmet nodded. "Hey, Archer?" He asked the moment they had gone. He walked over, looking his opponent up and down. "Was Lucy ok at the meeting?"

Archer nodded eagerly. "Yeah, she was great! We had lots of fun, you've got quite a girl, Emmet. Hang onto her."

Emmet thought the way he said, 'hang onto her' sounded too much like a threat. "Heh, I sure will. So, I'm guessing you have to go?"

"Well, actually..."

Emmet started walking forward, feeling whatever was left of Rex in him gain some dominance. "Yeah, I know you've gotta be busy."

Archer tried to break in as he was nudged out the door. "I don't have that–"

"See ya later sometime, bye!" Emmet shut the door and locked it the moment the space was free.

He sighed in relief. Done and _done_.

Lucy ran back in, finding her boyfriend guarding the door like a knight at the door of a dragon. "Where's Archer?"

Emmet made a mental note to thank Unikitty later. "Oh, he had to leave." Yes, he _had_ to leave.

"Oh..." Lucy looked Emmet up and down, her eyes like scanners at President Business' office.

Emmet tried not to look guilty, but that's a hard thing to do when your kind of _are_ guilty. He gave her a wide smile, still covering the door. "I missed you!"

Lucy paused. Was it just her, or was Emmet acting...weird? Archer hadn't mentioned needing to leave, and why was Emmet covering the door like that? Something wasn't right here, and she didn't like not knowing what it was.

Catching sight of his hopeful, adorable smile, she gave in and decided to forget about it. "I missed you too, Ems." She smiled softly.

_She's back._

Emmet sighed like a boulder of fifteen tons that was hanging an inch above him had just been lifted. "Thank goodness."

Lucy giggled slightly, moving to her boyfriend's side. "You thought I would forget about you? I could barely sleep last night!"

Emmet's whole body warmed as she stroked his cheek…if she kissed him he was liable to melt into a puddle right then and there. "I love you, Lucy." He started sliding down the door, letting her bend down as he lowered to the ground with her face nearing his.

She smiled softly. "I love you too." Finally, not able to resist, she leaned forward and kissed him even deeper and more passionately than when they were saying goodbye, pressing him up against the door while she did it.

Emmet wrapped his arms around her, and any thoughts of the last five minutes vanished from his mind. He was here, Lucy was here, and no one was going to take her away from him.

"Lucy?"

"Mm…mhm?"

"I love you."

#

As Emmet's eyes opened the next morning, he was peaceful. Happy. He moved in the bed over to Lucy, wrapping an arm around her waist so she could snuggle into him. "Morning, Lucy."

"I want sleep."

He laughed under his breath, inhaling the scent of her Ice Cream Sprinkle Shampoo (Which was not actually hers, that was what happened when Unikitty did the shopping for a day). "Got it," he replied.

She snuggled into his chest, falling back into a warm sleep. This was one of his favorite parts of his life. He used to get up like clockwork every morning, but now? Why would he get up early when he had Lucy cuddling in his arms like this?

"Morning..." Unikitty mumbled from the foot of the bed, barely awake. Even though she had her own room, Unikitty occasionally slipped in and slept at the foot of their bed. They didn't mind, and even if they did, it's not like she would stop.

"Morning, Unikitty!" Emmet greeted. Every morning was Christmas morning for Emmet. "How'd you sleep?"

"I'll let you know when I'm done."

"Heh, sorry."

_DING-DONG!_

Lucy groaned. "GO AWAY!"

Emmet giggled. "You want me to go get it?"

She paused, and for a moment Emmet thought she went back to sleep. "Yeah, thanks."

Emmet kissed her on the forehead. "No problem. Love you!"

"Love."

Emmet giggled as he watched his girlfriend bury herself back in the bed. Hopping out, he quietly tip-toed across the room as not to disturb 'his girls' as he had informally dubbed his roommates.

He gently shut the door behind him, made his way through the hallway, through the house and to the door. It was 10:57 A.M, so maybe it wasn't so much that they had an early guest, but they had just slept a _little _later than usual.

He opened the door in good spirits. "Hey...oh."

Emmet's disposition flat lined like a heart monitor in a soap opera hospital. "Hi, Archer. What brings you here?"

Archer waved, it seemed that was his trademark. "Hi, Emmet! I asked Lucy to coffee yesterday, and she said sure. Is she ready?"

Emmet didn't respond. "Uh, Emmet?" Archer waved a hand in front of his face. "You ok?"

Why...what...how? Lucy...coffee...Archer...WHY.

Ok, back up. Lucy could go for coffee with anyone she wanted to, right? There was no reason that she couldn't.

Except for the kraken tearing away at his heart and stirring his stomach into knots.

Other than that, yeah, it was a perfectly fine plan.

"Uh, I'll go see, come on in..." Emmet opened the door and let Archer in, his mind yelling and banging pots and pans at him.

_WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!_

Archer took a seat on the couch while Emmet ran back to the bedroom. He yanked open the door in a state of raw heart-sickness, until catching sight of his girls. Lucy was curled up in her blankets, Unikitty was sprawled out and snoring...everything was fine in this room. It was just the living room's sate he had a problem with.

Making his way over to the bed, he gently rubbed Lucy's shoulder. "Lucy? Do you have a coffee date–wait…" He paused, deciding to word his sentence differently. "…are you going to drink coffee with a purely platonic friend named Archer?"

Lucy turned to face Emmet. "Huh? Emmet, it's too early in the morning for your word-a-day junk."

Grasping his patience like it was a paper airplane just a foot above his head, he sucked in a breath. "Are you meeting Archer for coffee?"

Lucy shot up in bed, nearly dizzy from the sudden movement and shocking Emmet a little. "Oh yeah! I completely forgot about that. Is he here?"

Oh, he was here, unfortunately. "Yeah, he's here."

Lucy hopped out of bed and started getting ready, in a mild state of frenzy. "Sorry, Emmet, it just left my mind that I told him we could get coffee today."

Emmet rubbed the back of his neck, nerves jumping like kids on a trampoline. "Oh, ok, I'll just get one overpriced coffee today, that's ok..."

Lucy was ready within the minute, and he was impressed and a little lovesick over her ability. Come to think of it, he was in love over everything she could do. "Ok, I'll see you later, love you!" She gave him a quick kiss, then left him to wallow in the bedroom.

The moment the door shut, Unikitty sprung to life. "Emmet, you just let her go?!"

"ACK!"

Emmet was startled back at Unikitty's sudden proclamation. "Huh?"

Could he really not see? Did he really not understand what was happening? Unikitty had watched a lot of soap operas and romantic comedies, and she _knew _where this was headed. "Emmet, listen carefully. Lucy is going for coffee…" She hopped off the bed and walked over to him. "…WITH ANOTHER GUY!"

"AH!"

Emmet stared at Unikitty, panting and clutching his ringing ear. He was really getting tired of being scared like that! "Unikitty, I know! Don't you think I'm worried about it?"

The room was silent for the next moments while the two tried to figure out their next step. "What are you gonna do?" Unikitty asked gently.

Emmet shrugged, his face indecisive between hopeless giving-up and jittery anxiety. "I don't know."

#

Emmet was at home, flipping through an album full of pictures and snapshots of some of the happiest moments in his life. Most included Lucy, and that was the saddest fact for him in the moment.

Lucy hadn't come back yet.

It was eight-thirty P.M.

They were getting _coffee_.

She hadn't returned his texts or calls. Where was she? He had called Scribble Cop, formally Bad/Good Cop, and asked him if he had seen Lucy, but he didn't know. He had also asked everyone he knew to keep an eye out for her and had gone out looking for her himself...only coming back to the house because Unikitty didn't want him falling asleep in the sidewalks.

"Hey, Emmet," Unikitty greeted in a soft and sympathetic voice. Watching one of her best friends deflating like this was killing her. How could Lucy do this to him? If she was in trouble, that was a whole other issue, but if she was just being careless and hanging out with a new friend, Unikitty had to have a talk with her.

"Hey."

Unikitty sighed, pulled up a seat next to Emmet and looked at the album. "What'cha looking at?"

The smile on Emmet's face was like an injured child, weak but trying. "Pictures. Look, this one's from when Lucy and I tried every ice cream at the malt shop."

Unikitty's laughter sparked Emmet to smile a bit brighter. "I remember that, you both could barely walk!" She flipped to the next page, pointing out another fond memory. "Hey, this is from when we all swapped clothes for a day!"

Emmet giggled. "I still think Benny wearing Scribble Cop's uniform should've won first place. You're still proud that you won, aren't you?"

The look of pride was unmistakable on Unikitty's face, despite the rosy hue. "Yeah, wearing Batman's outfit really won it for me."

A few more pictures went by, and Emmet _almost_ forgot about Lucy's disappearance.

_Ding dong! _

"LUCY!" Emmet shouted like a toddler. The only thing Unikitty didn't like was that as he ran for the door he didn't look so much elated, more...mad. Was that possible? She had rarely seen Emmet angry, much less, if at all, with Lucy.

Emmet flung opened the door, and Lucy was already holding her hands up in surrendering apology. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"_Late?_ Lucy, late is when people come home fifteen minutes to an hour late. You went _missing_ and just showed up early."

Lucy stared at her boyfriend. "Ems?" Her legs were like soft glass as she walked in, his glare never leaving him as he slammed the door shut. "Uh...are you ok?"

His glare twisted, his hands on his hip. "Sorry I had to interrupt, were you saying goodbye to your 'boyfriend?" Whatever inside him, whatever strange concoction of emotions that he had that had allowed him to turn into Rex in that timeline was shining through, breaking through his sweet, sugary disposition.

Signal to Unikitty, Lucy thought. She looked to her roommate for an explanation, solution, anything, but she looked just as bewildered. "What are you talking about? We stayed out a little later than–"

"A LITTLE?!" Emmet exploded like a nuclear bomb and slammed his fists down on the table. "You left this morning with another guy, and didn't come back until now, and it's nine o'clock! What am I supposed to think?"

Lucy swallowed. Why was Emmet acting like this? Why was her sweet, cheerful, loving boyfriend yelling and shouting and blowing up at her? "I'm sorry, alright? But you don't have to freak out..."

Eyes widening, she took a step back. "Emmet, are you jealous?" Her voice was softer than air, it came out more as breath than speech.

"NO!" He hollered. He turned away from her, burying his head in his hands so he couldn't see the few tears in his eyes. Was he losing his girlfriend? Was she leaving him? He didn't want to lose her. "I'm mad! I'm not jealous, I'm mad! Do you even care about me?"

Lucy's cheeks heated. "Emmet, of course I do! I love you, where is this coming from?"

"WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?" His voice shook the very core of Lucy's heart. She had almost never heard Emmet yell.

Now he was hollering.

_Because_ of her.

"Emmet, I'm sorry, but don't you trust me?" She deflected. She had to put it off of her. This wasn't her fault. He was over reacting. She wasn't the wrong one here. She couldn't be.

Not again.

Emmet scoffed. "I don't even know, anymore, Wyldstyle."

They could hear Unikitty's gasp from across the room. This was enough, she decided. She couldn't just stand by while they fought like this. "Why don't we just take a breath, all of us, and talk everything out?"

"No, Unikitty. This can't be solved with talking." Rex's voice echoed through Emmet's mouth, and it gave Lucy a sick feeling to her stomach that made her want to lie down.

Lucy could fight. She was tough and knew how to fight and win. And if she couldn't fix Emmet's anger with her by apologizing…then she could get just as mad. Very, very easily.

"Emmet, if you can't trust me, then maybe I _should _spend more time with Archer." Her cheeks burned like hot coals. Her palms sweat. She and Emmet never fought.

_She's mad. Back out now. Tell her you're sorry and just explain that you were jealous and don't like her spending so much time with him. She'll understand._

"Oh yeah?" Emmet retorted, a sick smirk slipping on his face. "Well, maybe you should!"

"Maybe I WILL!"

"GOOD!"

"FINE!"

They stormed away from each other, Emmet stomping to the kitchen and Lucy marching into the bedroom.

Unikitty, with tears in her eyes, glanced between the kitchen, then the bedroom, the kitchen, bedroom, kitchen and bedroom until she was dizzy. "Guys, don't fight!" She pleaded, standing from in between the two warring spaces. How many times would she have to play get-back-together sappy songs until _this_ was fixed?

"SHUT UP, UNIKITTY!" They hollered in unison.

Ouch.

Unikitty shrunk, curling up into a whimpering ball. "Ok."

#

Things didn't get much better from there.

The next morning, all was silent as Emmet made breakfast. Lucy wouldn't speak to Emmet, Emmet wouldn't look at Lucy, Unikitty wouldn't talk to either of them...it was a mess.

"Hey, guys!" Sweet Mayhem, a neutral party, walked in. The door was open, and she wanted to see if her friends were up for a movie. "How's everything going?"

No one answered her, and her only option was to watch as Emmet went to eat on the couch, Unikitty walked to her room, and Lucy stayed at the table with her book. It was like watching a puppy give up on playing fetch. "Um, are you guys ok?"

Deciding she would have better luck talking to Emmet, she walked to the living room like she was on a tightrope, careful not to disturb the thick, tense atmosphere in the house. "Emmet, why is everyone so quiet?"

Emmet grunted. "Lucy and I are fighting."

Gulp.

Sweet didn't like the sound of that. While she hadn't known Emmet and Lucy for that long, they seemed like the type of couple that never, ever fought. "Why?" She asked gently.

Emmet turned and glared in Lucy's general direction. "BECAUSE LUCY WENT ON A DATE!"

"NO, I DIDN'T! I WENT OUT WITH A FRIEND AND EMMET'S OVERREACTING!"

Sweet took a few steps back. "Um...Unikitty?"

Unikitty walked out of her room, looking positively glum and depressed, as opposed to her usual two extremes, elated or rage-filled. Sweet ran over to her quickly. "Unikitty, we've got to fix this, look at them! They can't even talk to each other."

Unikitty pouted. "They told me to shut up."

"When?"

"Last night. When they were fighting."

Sweet sighed. What, was _she_ supposed to fix this now? Was she back-up Unikitty? Did she now have to play the mediator role? "Ok, can you at least give me an unbiased story of what happened last night?"

Unikitty thought it over. She didn't like her roommates fighting, as angry with them as she was. "Fine. Lucy came back from her meeting with a guy who she claimed as a friend, nearly ignoring Emmet until he left. After he left everything was fine, but the next morning she went out for coffee and didn't come back until _nine_." Unikitty sighed, mirroring Sweet's bottom-lip-biting expression. "That's when the fight started."

"Well, what should we do?" Sweet asked. Maybe Unikitty would forget her anger with the pair and help her fix everything.

Unikitty shrugged. "I don't know."

"You're always supposed to know these things!" Sweet exclaimed. "Don't you read romantic stuff all the time? If I have to fix this without you, then I need something to go on!"

Well, she had a point. Unikitty nodded. "Fine, one second." Unikitty raced to her room and back within thirty seconds, and Sweet didn't even want to know how that was possible. "Here." She handed her a book titled _The Laws of Jealousy_. "This book will tell you everything."

"Why do you have this?"

"Don't ask."

Sweet decided to obey. "Thanks, Unikitty! I'm gonna get these two back together!" Sweet waved goodbye to everyone and ran out.

Unikitty smiled. "If I ever need an apprentice, that girl could work out."

She took a few steps, looking between a grudge-holding Emmet and a bitter Lucy. This wasn't right. She could see the hurt in both of their eyes, neither wanted to keep fighting. But she knew if she so much as suggested for them to make up, they'd probably start fighting again.

She would've expected Emmet to apologize by now…maybe they had all been taking Emmet's laid-back attitude for granted.

_We've never learned what to do with him when he's mad._

Without a goodbye, Unikitty silently walked out the door to help Sweet.

How long would this go on before things got _really_ bad?

#

That evening...

"I'm going out," Lucy grunted in Emmet's direction from the living room. "Archer and I are getting ice cream since you're still overreacting."

"Fine."

Lucy rolled her eyes. If there was one thing she despised more than her boyfriend's anger, it was his lie of indifference. She knew he cared that she was seeing Archer again, it had to be eating him up inside, even if he didn't show it.

Right?

Or did he simply no longer care? Was he _really_ indifferent?

No. Of course not. He was just pretending to not care to get to her.

Well, it was working.

"Bye," He mumbled out. He couldn't help himself, despite the mild silent treatment they both had going.

Lucy turned to face him at the door. He was saying goodbye. "Bye," she replied. She would go no farther than him, if he apologized, she would apologize.

Walking out the door she realized, fighting with someone you actually loved hurt a whole lot worse than fighting with someone you liked.

Form inside, Emmet was staring at the door, regretting any and all steps they had taken to start fighting. If only he had done this, if only he hadn't done that, if only _something_ had been different, he wouldn't be in the middle of this heart-breaking fight.

Then again, if he had never even _met _Lucy, he wouldn't be going through this. He wouldn't even be aware of the bleeding pain for fighting with someone you love.

He knew Lucy loved him just as much as he did. Was she feeling this way? Was she hurting just as much?

He didn't want to hurt Lucy. That was the _last _thing he wanted to do. He would rather live the rest of his life out in misery than have her live out a less-than-wonderful life.

Despite tears burning in his eyes, he knew what he had to do.

#

"What do you want, Lucy?" Archer asked, surveying the different flavors on the menu. He got no response. "Lucy?"

"Huh?" She was snapped out of her daydream. "Oh, uh, vanilla."

He nodded, paid for the ice cream and followed her to a seat inside the malt shop. She couldn't have looked sullener if she was reading a book where everyone's favorite character died. "Are you ok?" He asked gently.

She looked up from the table to him. "Uh, yeah, fine."

Well, that was a big lie.

Here, out of the house, Lucy's rage and stubbornness was having a nasty after-effect that she didn't care much for. Something like guilt, but worse. Fear? What was fear and guilt mixed together? She didn't know, but whatever it was, she didn't like it.

Archer shook his head. "You're not fine. You can talk to me. Did something happen with Emmet?" He was worried he had said too much, but the sweet smile on Lucy's face turned his whole body to jelly.

She shook her head. "It's nothing, we just had a fight." A big, colossal, my-heart-is-breaking-without-you fight was more like it.

"What happened?" He was blissfully ignorant that _he_ was the cause, but the idea of benefiting from this whole fiasco was not far from his mind.

Lucy looked at him. She obviously couldn't tell him that they were fighting over the time she was spending with him. However, subtlety was not always Lucy's specialty. "We...he's just jealous about this guy I met. I don't even like him that way, but I want him to trust me. The fight just got out of hand."

The mention of the word 'hand' nearly sent Lucy's heart to the hospital room. Holding hands. She was starved for him. The way he held her, kissed her, his smile, she felt like she had been on a boat for months, sailing farther and farther away from the love of her life.

Archer wasn't dumb, maybe a little naïve, but not dumb. He knew she was talking about him. And he knew by her tone and the way she was doodling E+L on her napkin she really _didn't_ like him.

So, there was only one thing left to do.

He leaned forward and kissed her.

"YAH!" With one swift punch, Archer was knocked onto the ground. "What are you doing?!" Lucy shouted. All eyes in the parlor were on her, but at this point she was too mad care about that.

Archer stood up, and he seemed...taller? "I was kissing you, dummy."

Lucy found her ability to speak taken away, only able to race and catch up with the transformation taking place before her. "Dude, no guy just 'hangs out' with a girl without wanting something! You actually thought we were just friends?" He scoffed. "And you thought Emmet was the stupid one."

He found his collar in her grip within the second.

"Don't call him that!" the punch she threw harbored all the anger from the past day, with herself, with Emmet, and with Archer. Needless to say, he was gonna have to see a dentist. No one called Emmet that and got away with it.

Lucy dropped him to the ground, letting him fall with a crashing _thud_. "I'd leave you with some witty comeback," Lucy said, grinning mischievously. "But since you don't even deserve one, I won't."

Archer could only stare as she left the parlor, her hand on her phone and calling Emmet. "I hope he knows what he has."

#

"Emmet?" Lucy threw the door open so hard it nearly fell off. "Emmet, we need to talk!"

She spotted Emmet coming out of the kitchen, carrying two small suitcases. "Uh, hi, Lucy. I was gonna leave before you came back." His voice was calm…choked up and weary from crying, but calm. He needed to leave her with a cool composure if he was going to do this… and he had to.

Lucy's breath halted in her throat. "_Leave?_ What are you talking about?" She could barely shut the door, her hands were shaking and twitching at the word.

Emmet rubbed the back of his neck, and only then did Lucy notice how red his eyes were, that his cheeks were stained with tears, and his bags were packed messily, like he had done it in fifteen minutes. "Uh, yeah. If y-you don't... love me anymore, I mean… if you want to be with Archer, I can't stop you. Te-tell Unikitty goodbye for me."

He scooped up his bags, and without so much as a glance in her direction, headed for the door.

"Wait a minute, Ems." She grabbed his arm like a lifeline, gripping it much too tight. What was he doing? He wasn't actually thinking of leaving her, was he? It didn't matter, she would chase him through the Wild West and Middle Zealand if she had to. No way was she letting him go. "I'm not leaving you!"

Emmet nodded, the depressed frown on his face was far too stubborn. "I know, _I'm_ leaving. I'm staying with either Benny or Batman, preferably the first." He forced his gaze to her. "Be happy, Lucy." Leaning forward as she was a statue before him, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I love you," he whispered through sobs climbing up his throat.

Lucy smirked. "Oh, no. Don't you dare." Grabbing a tight hold of his arm, he glided like on ice into her embrace as she crashed her lips to his.

He melted into it.

She quickly pulled away before she wouldn't be able to stop herself. "…I'm sorry. I never, _ever _liked Archer more than you, I thought he was just a friend, but today he…he tried to kiss me."

"He tried _what?"_

Emmet dropped his bags to the ground like they were five-ton weights. "I remember how to do the Master-breaking, and I'm pretty sure I can do it to someone's face." He moved his hands to her upped arms, guilty sheepishness crossing his face. "I'm sorry he did that, Lucy."

Lucy grinned, and her eyes shut in tune with a breath escaping her lips. He still cared, he still loved her, he hadn't been indifferent. "Just… don't leave me, please? I can't lose you." A sob she didn't know she was holding escaped, her grip on his arms tensing. "Please, _please _don't leave me."

Emmet couldn't stop himself from sliding his hands to her back and pressing his lips to hers.

"I…don't…" He spoke between kisses, nearly giggling at the way she smiled in the kiss. "…think…I…could ever…leave…you…anyway."

Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck and let her hands go into his hair, ruffling it like it was in the morning. "Good."

Just as the kiss started to deepen past their goodbye _and _reunion, the door burst open, revealing Sweet Mayhem and Unikitty looking like superheroes breaking into a crime scene.

"WE'RE GONNA HELP YOU GUYS!" Sweet announced, high-fiving Unikitty beside her.

Emmet and Lucy pulled apart, staring at Sweet and Unikitty. Lucy laughed slightly, looking to her boyfriend. "Uh, we're all good, right, babe?"

Emmet nodded. "Yeah, we're good!"

Sweet and Unikitty's jaws dropped to the floor. "Wait…so, you _didn't _need us to give you counseling?" Unikitty asked.

"Uh, nope!" Emmet grinned widely, taking Lucy's hand in his. "We're all good now!"

"That's great!"" Sweet exclaimed. "Benny and I were gonna go out to a movie, you guys wanna come?"

Unikitty pouted from beside Sweet. She was being obvious and she knew it, but that was the goal. After all, they may have made up, but she still wanted an apology. "Hm!"

Emmet and Lucy exchanged sheepish smiles. "We're sorry, Unikitty," Lucy said.

Emmet nodded. "We really are, we were mad at each other and took it out on you."

Unikitty opened one eye, looking at the both of them. Darn it, they were just too awesome to be mad at.

"Do you want to come with us to the movies?" Emmet asked. If there was one thing besides glitter and sweets that would get Unikitty's forgiveness, it was friendship.

Unikitty whimpered, her motivation to be mad and stubborn slipping away like sprinkles off a cupcake without frosting. "Oh, ok, I forgive you!" She laughed and hugged the pair, fireworks shooting out all around her. "Let's go!"

Sweet followed her out, mentioning something about wanting to sit next to Benny.

Lucy looked over at her boyfriend, smiling softly. "Ready to go?"

He grabbed her hand, the familiarity comforting and warm. "Only if you come with me."

"You're such a sap."

"You love it, don't you?"

"Yup."


	8. Mine, Forever Mine

**A/N: AWW, the reviews are so sweet! I'm so glad I did this! Since I'm finishing a Kung Fu Panda story soon, you should see an Emmetstyle continual fanfic coming up shortly afterwards, title is ****_Remembering You_****. This oneshot is** **Starsparkle133's request. I'm not that happy with it, it's just pointless fluff, but I hope someone likes it! Sorry if it's not good. **

Sharing Emmet was not Lucy's favorite pastime.

"You ok, Lucy?" Emmet asked his girlfriend, taking her hand in his with a smile that could only be described as adorably oblivious.

"Yeah, I'm ok," she answered in a tone that betrayed her words. In truth, she wanted nothing more than to leave, take him with her, and kiss him through the night.

They were at a party, no matter the effect it had on Lucy, it was a party, celebrating the union between the Systar System and Apocalypseburg, bursting with confetti every five minutes in the streets. Fireworks soon exploded in the skies, illuminating the calm blackness of night that was reminiscent of the 4th of July. Happy, at peace, like day during night.

However, when a party had extended well past its eight hour mark, Lucy was ready to go home.

Especially when everyone was tugging on Emmet's arm, patting him on the back, and having lingering, monotonous conversations with him into eternity.

"Hey, Emmet!" Another stranger came up to him, waving like he had known him for years. "Congratulations, buddy! And Lucy, you saved the world!"

She nodded cordially, thanking him. She got her fair share of thanks, probably more than Emmet, but she didn't have to like it. "Emmet," she interrupted before the man took up any more time. "Can I talk to you?"

His classic smile that she had seen about five times within the first three minutes of knowing him shone at her. "Sure, Lucy! Bye, uh, guy!" Emmet blushed at not knowing the man's name, but it didn't seem to faze him.

She led him by his hand through crowds, quickly but expertly built kiddie rides, food stands, and general chaos to a secluded tree raised on a small hill, quiet and lonesome enough for Lucy's satisfaction. Her smile was soft as she caught him staring at her. "What?"

"You're pretty. Have I ever told you that?"

Her cheeks heated up like Emmet had flicked on a thermostat inside her. "Yes, like when you forgot how to speak when you first saw me."

Emmet started laughing at the memory, sitting down on the dry grass, cooled by the night sky. "I remember that."

They sat in silence for a few moments, and Lucy was secretly grateful for the breathing time. Being crowded with all those people, it was maddening, like letting loose a newborn kitten into Times Square.

"So, what did you have to talk to me about?" Emmet leaned over, brushing a stray lock of her candy blue and lip-gloss pink hair out of her face.

Her blush was so intense that it nearly blocked out her freckles. "Nothing, I just wanted to have you to myself, we've been in craziness all day." She smiled sweetly at him, loving the dazed smile that lay across his face.

Leaning forward, she caught his lips in a deep, long kiss.

_I've missed this._

She could feel the smile beneath her lips, but covered it in another kiss anyway. She wasn't going to ever let him go again; no more changes, no more quests, no more kidnappings. She just wanted her and Emmet, forever and ever until the ends of time. No one, not strangers nor friends, could take him away from her.

"I love you," she murmured into another kiss, his hands moving from her waist to press against her back. She, in turn, let her hands travel to the back of his neck where she could mess up his soft hair.

"I love you too." His words were muffled as he kissed her, only prompting her to kiss him deeper. No, no more leaving him, she decided. No matter the situation, be it kidnappings or a fight, she would stay by his side until her last breath.

The two remained entwined for some time, occasionally stopping for a breath or a kind look, but always being propelled into another kiss.

"EMMET!"

Lucy groaned at the screech of another fan. Did they _have_ to be so well-known? Emmet had once suggested they take a vacation for a week in the deep country, or rent a lake house. She was beginning to think that was a _great_ idea.

Giving him one last firm kiss, she pulled back and watched with animosity as a random woman trudged up the hill. Oh, wonderful, a fangirl. If she so much as _looked_ at Emmet...

"Hi!" She greeted, her breath labored and rough from hiking. "You're Emmet, right?" She avoided mention of Lucy, who was looking less-than-pleased.

Emmet nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, yeah, hi!" Truth be told, women who weren't his friends didn't do much for him. He wasn't dumb, he knew they liked him, and judging by the way Lucy was glaring, she didn't care for the attention they gave him.

The woman, petite and gracefully-figured, sat with perfect posture in front of them. "We were starting a game of volleyball down there, do you want to join?"

Emmet's stuttering plan was interrupted at Lucy's grip on his arms; she clutched him like she was planning to tether him to the tree to keep him from going. He wasn't too averse to the idea…

"No thanks," he replied, finding letting the girl down was much easier with Lucy's hand in his. "I'm tired, I just want to rest for now."

The girl nodded, hiding the brief flash of jealousy with a bright smile. "Alright, see you later!" She ran down the hill, muttering something about 'overprotective girlfriends'

Lucy's grip relaxed on Emmet's arm as a sigh escaped her lips. "Did…did you want to go?" She was suddenly worried at the possibility she had kept him from doing something fun, guilt trickling along her face.

"No."

"Are you really tired?"

"No."

Oh, her sweet Emmet.

Grinning and biting her bottom lip, she reached forward, clutched his vest and pulled him close to her and simultaneously getting lost in his eyes. "I love you," she murmured under what little breath she had left; being this close to him really did unimaginable things to her.

He leaned forward, connecting their lips, the moment coinciding with a firework bursting into reds, oranges and yellows above them.

"I love you too."


	9. Happily Ever After

**A/N: I LOVE the reviews, you're the best! _NOTES_: 1. I haven't made this specifically humanized or not, but this oneshot contains a part where they are, so read these how you wish. 2. I was able to squeeze in Regular Ferret's request. 3. I'm not sure what Teen Vampire's name is, so I'm calling him Teen Vampire, sorry :(. 4. For their honeymoon, I couldn't think of a 'romantic honeymoon' destination in Lego World, so I chose a human one. 5. This gets _slightly _suggestive at the end. NOW I'm done!**

This was it.

Marriage.

Goodness, Lucy had given up on that word before meeting Emmet. The thought, the mere, fleeting idea of getting married had crossed her mind, even when she was with Batman. But there was something missing from the picture, and she could never quite figure out what it was until meeting Emmet.

Love. She didn't really love Batman, but with Emmet, it was quick, passionate, honest and deep. He was her world, her dreams, her love, her life, her heart, her devotion and her mission. She had never experienced true love like she had with him. It was the type of love little girls read of in fairy tales, the type that princesses experienced with dashing, charming young princes. She, a rebel from the beginning, was supposed to live through life with meaningless flings.

On some level, she doubted she deserved him. He was sweet, passionate, warm, loving, the most amazing man she'd ever kissed. Despite her fears of not deserving him, she was regularly comforted by his kisses, hugs, and sweet words reassurance.

"Wildtype, are you read–" Unikitty's words were halted in her breath, spotting her best friend. "Wow, you look fantastic! Emmet's gonna freak out when he sees you!"

While Lucy didn't often concern herself too heavily with her appearance, she had to admit, she looked good. While her Maid of Honor Unikitty could not convince her to let her hair down, she allowed her to mess with it a little. Her hair, now slightly longer after growing it out, flowed like a waterfall down an inch or so past its usual length with who-knows-what products in it.

Her gown was a thing of a miracle. It had taken three weeks, fifteen stores, six meetings with designers, and four mental breakdowns (Not all from Lucy) to find her dress, but it was all worth it.

A sheathe was what she had wanted, and a sheathe was what she got. It clung to her curves, giving her a girlish glow she didn't often have. The sleeves, beaded lace evenly spread, hugged her shoulders. The dress reached down just to brush the floor, sweeping along as she walked. She felt like a princess, exactly how she felt with Emmet.

Her makeup was natural, just a level or two above what she normally did; she wanted to marry Emmet looking like how she had met him, without any bold lipstick or having to cover her freckles he routinely complimented.

"I do look good, don't I?" She laughed, so giddy with the day's events to come. "What time is it?"

Unikitty didn't even glance at the clock. "Ten-fifteen and thirty-three seconds, you have approximately six minutes before we have to go to the church."

Lucy stared at her Maid of Honor. "Uh, how did you do that?"

"Don't ask."

She didn't, instead picking up her bouquet, a mix of orange poppies and pink roses.

"You're excited, aren't you?" Unikitty asked like she was uncovering a massive secret of Lucy's, thought anyone could see the bridal glow on her face.

Lucy nodded, lost in picturing her fiancé's tearful, love-struck face as she walked down the alter. "I am. I can't believe this is actually happening."

"Well, believe it," Unikitty laughed. Running to her best friend's side, she gently nudged her out the door. "Now, let's go! You've got a wedding to go to, and it's _my _fault if you're late!"

#

Emmet had been happy plenty of times in his life. He was the happiest person in the universe, for countless reasons, Lucy being one of them. And now he was getting married, and he was afraid this was some dream that he would wake up from, and he would be stuck back in his boring, average, follow-the-instructions life.

Batman and Benny had reassured him infinite times, not that he _really _needed it. If most happy people were on cloud nine, he was somewhere around the center of the Milky Way. Lucy, the love of his life, was about to become his wife.

Coming home to her after a long day, seeing her wearing her wedding ring. Holding her hand during labor as she gave birth to their first child. Teaching the kid how to ride a bike. Sneaking away with her for a few minutes of privacy while their children played. Taking them trick-or-treating. Begging for more sleep when their kids woke them up on Christmas Eve. Letting Benny and Sweet babysit their kids on their anniversary. Sending their first child to college and trying not to cry the whole way there. Having the house to themselves when all their kids were at school. Watching them graduate. Having grandchildren.

Living.

"Hey, try not to start crying on us already, kid." Batman tapped him on the shoulder in the limo.

Emmet honestly couldn't keep that promise.

#

She had to be there. She must've been right outside, getting out of the limo, and walking in. Right?

Emmet refused to entertain the notion that she wasn't coming. She wouldn't leave him at the altar. She wouldn't.

"Batman, where is she?" Emmet whispered in one short breath.

"Cool it, kid. She'll be here. Wyldstyle loves to be late."

"To our _wedding?"_

Batman took a glance at the gold-rimmed clock across the church, over the hundreds of heads. "Five more minutes, then you can worry. Besides, Unikitty won't let her be late." He was positive that she would be there on time. For sure. Definitely. Right?

The church, packed to the brim with the guest list of three-hundred and fifty-six, was to Lucy's exact requirements and desires for her wedding. The guests were adorned to the nines in evening gowns, princess dresses, tuxes and suits. The interior was adorned with gold trimmings, snow-silver ribbons and sapphire embellishments thrown here and there.

He pulled and tugged at the threads of his white tuxedo jacket, the motion soothing him. "Come on, Lucy, please get here!"

As if the piano took orders, 'Here Comes the Bride' filled everyone's ears in the instant, tightening Emmet's insides and loosening his heart strings.

Emmet looked over Unikitty, Sweet, Benny, Metal Beard, and a whole assortment of their friends in a desperate, biting-lip search for his bride.

After an eternity, he spotted her.

His heart stopped.

For the moment, he thought he was having another vision. He was back to the first time he had caught a glimpse of her, her and her flowing, unique, fantastic hair.

Six years ago…

_She...she...she..._

_That woman, she was something out of a dream, a figment of one's imagination. Something that one would dream of and cling to at night, then be forced, without consent, to forget of in the morning. Beautiful, magnificent, perfect. He found no faults in her._

_Her hair, how could he begin? Her had only seen hair like that in fairy tales and children's books, where imagination is catered to and thoughts can wander freely. How could one person harbor so much beauty? She had to be one of those women that other girls looked at, seething with green, burning envy. She had to be that woman that men looked after, wistful longing pouring from their face._

_And yet, here he was, already in love with the girl whose name he didn't even know._

_Love. He had never experienced it, never even thought it would happen to him. As a child, teen, and young adult, he had hardly understood how one knew when they were 'in love' There were no instructions for love, how was one to know when they were in love?_

_As soon as he caught a fleeting glimpse of her, he knew what love was._

Batman helpfully nudged him back to the present day as Lucy stepped up to the alter.

Emmet looked her up and down, sweet tears pooling up in his eyes. "You look beautiful."

Even on her wedding day, after hearing the same compliment thousands of times, she still blushed when it came from him. "Thanks."

The priest smiled down upon them kindly. "We are gathered here today to join Emmet Brickowski and Lucy Emerald in holy matrimony. Marriage is not to be taken lightly, and is a sacred bond which molds the pair together for all of eternity. Therefore, if anyone has any just cause why these two should not be married, speak now, or forever hold their peace."

No one spoke, and the priest continued.

"Marriage is a beautiful thing; it cannot be rushed, it cannot be forced, it cannot be built. It comes from love, something that develops naturally. Love is wanting the best for the person, and as everyone in this church has seen, these two will do anything and everything for each other."

The priest nodded, and, reaching over, Emmet took Lucy's hands in his, much like the first time they had done so. He still got the flutter in his heart. "Emmet Brickowski, do you take Lucy Emerald to be your lawfully wedded wife? From this day forward, to have and to hold, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do you part?"

Emmet, tears running down his face, nodded. "I do."

"Lucy Emerald, do you take Emmet Brickowski to be your lawfully wedded husband? From this day forward, to have and to hold, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do you part?"

Lucy, feeling Emmet grip her hands tighter in unnecessary anxiety, spoke in a reassuring voice; "I do."

His hands relaxed around hers, and she giggled, the church smiling along with her.

The priest looked to Benny, off to the side. "May we have the rings?"

Benny handed over two golden rings, sparkling against the light of the chandelier above them.

"Emmet, repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed."

Taking the ring, his own hands shook as he slipped it on Lucy's finger. "With this ring, I thee wed." He could hardly discern which was shakiest; his voice, his smile, or his hands.

Lucy grabbed and held tight to his hands. "I love you," she whispered, quiet enough for only him to hear.

The priest handed Lucy the ring. "Lucy, repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed."

Never releasing contact with him, she slipped the ring on his finger. "With this ring, I thee wed."

Everyone, even the priest, had damp, tear-stained eyes. "With the power vested in me by the state of Syspocalypstar, I now pronounce you husband and wife." The priest stepped back, a smile on his face as the everyone in the church took in a small breath. "You may kiss the bride."

There were no words as Emmet wrapped her arms around his wife's waist and pulled her into such a passionate kiss that she nearly melted.

The applause was thunderous, but that didn't stop the newlyweds from getting lost in the kiss.

Lucy smiled under his lips, her arms holding fast around his neck. Her husband, finally, her husband. The crowd could wait a moment longer, she needed him more.

Gripping him even tighter, she kissed him through her words. "I love you."

She could feel his smile. "I love you too."

Unikitty looked to Sweet Mayhem. "Don't worry, I got this. GUYS!" She yelled to the pair, sparking the whole church into a fit of laughter. "Come on, you've got a reception to go to!"

Emmet laughed and broke the kiss, leaving his arms snug around her waist. "Come on, I think they're playing Everything is Awesome!"

"Oh brother."

She couldn't help but giggle as he bent down and swept her up into a bridal carry, the whole church clapping, getting their coats on, and preparing to follow them out. After all, a beach reception is not something to be kept waiting.

Emmet and Lucy Brickowski were now one.

#

The reception was on the beach on the east coast of Syspocalypstar. The sand, already glowing like pearls on a Victorian queen, stretched along like a band around the cove, touched only by the sapphire waters.

Emmet and Lucy had spent numerous weeks trying to find the perfect venue, and only after going down to the beach had he thought of the idea. She had agreed wholeheartedly, partly due to her exhaustion with all other options.

"The kid's happy, Ella," Emmet's father, Robert, commented to his wife as they waited for the newlyweds to arrive. They stood at the edge of the beach, the 'safe zone' for elegant dresses and expensive shoes.

Ella, smudging her mascara, wiped her eyes on her wrist. "I know, I just...our baby's all grown up."

"Yo, I'm still here." Amanda waved her hand from beside her mother. The sixteen-year-old, not exactly melancholy like her mother, made no comment about her brother's marriage. In truth, not that anyone needed to know, she couldn't have chosen a better sister-in-law.

Robert smiled down at his daughter. "We know."

Across the beach, up the wooden steps with grass poking out between the planks, the newlyweds and bridal party were getting out of the limo. "I can't believe you're married!" Unikitty exclaimed, taking Lucy aside to help her convert her dress.

The unspoken issue of a beach-wedding was, well, it was in nature. Sand and white satin did not mix, in Lucy's opinion, and she had her dress custom-tailored to have a convertible skirt that she could remove for the reception. It revealed a shorter, but still elegant, sheath skirt that wavered just around her knees.

"You've been saying that all the way here." Lucy stepped out of the skirt and brushed down the shorter counterpart. "Are we ready?"

"Yup!" Emmet popped over, taking his wife's hand. He could say that word over and over again, wife, spouse, partner, any variation worked for him.

"Ok let's go, I wanna get announced!" Watevra started running down, Batman close behind her.

The MC for the evening, appropriately Teen Vampire, announced the entire bridal party as they stepped down to the soft sand; Unikitty as the Maid of Honor, along with Sweet and Watevra as the bridesmaids. On the groom's side, Batman, Benny, Metal Beard, and even Vitruvius all stood in. He couldn't pick one best man, so they all had equal titles.

"And, here you have them, Emmet and Lucy Brickowski!"

Blushing like the sunset that climbed before them, the newlyweds walked down to the clapping reception, hand-in-hand. "Are you happy?" Lucy whispered, knowing the answer, but never growing tired of it.

Looking around, he gave his wife a quick kiss. "You know I am."

The reception could not have gone smoother from there. Casual eating was mixed with elegant waltzing, and a formal-sit-down dinner period crashed together with break-dancing. In short, it was perfect.

"I'd like Emmet and Lucy to come to the sand for their first dance," Teen Vampire announced, smiling from his DJ podium.

Emmet stood up from his seat, his countenance just as sheepish as when he'd first proposed as _You're My Home_ flowed through the beach air. "Lucy, may I have this dance?"

Her sweet, sweet Emmet. "How can I say no?"

"Awwww..." The crowd collectively voiced their approval at the couple as they made their way to the dance floor.

The reception had started in the evening, when the sun could barely hold itself above the horizon any longer, growing an exhausted crimson at the energy. Now, as it had given up, night took over, their new light was that of the young moon and lanterns adorned to trees circling them.

Emmet gently placed one hand snug around her waist, pressing her warm against him as his other hand cradled around hers. She put her free arm around his neck, resting in perfect comfort in his arms. They were practically at home, sitting on the couch, watching a romantic movie.

Whispering in her ear, Emmet smiled as she moved both her arms to rest around his shoulders. "Can you believe we're married?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I can, because I don't want to wake up from whatever amazing dream I'm having." His shoulder was warm as she rested her head on him, letting her eyes shut as if she would fall asleep in his arms.

"Neither do I. You know, if I died tomorrow, I would've lived the best life any has ever lived." He let his arms fall to her waist as her grip tightened around him.

Emmet could feel the melancholy mist around her as Lucy lazily kissed him. "Don't say things like that, I want you around for my whole life." Longer than that, she wanted to spend eternity with him.

He smiled, returning the kiss. "I'm planning on it. Remember when we first met?" She nodded on his shoulder, and he moved his hands to her back, protecting her from anything the world could through at them. He would never let her out of his guard, he would never let her get hurt, he would fight until the end of time to keep her from getting a scratch. Then again, if something like that arose, she would do the same for him, no matter how hard he tried to stop her. That would be their shield.

"That was when I fell in love with you." The admission was paired with a soft kiss, his eyes damp, open and honest.

"Really?" While Lucy had always known that he had fallen for her hard and fast, it was reassuring, in a way, to know that he had loved her from the start. "I'm not sure when I fell for you, but the moment you jumped…" She grasped him tighter, her eyes clenching together as if she was protecting him from that very moment. "…I knew I loved you."

"I'd like everyone to join the newlyweds in their first dance, come out onto the sand."

Everyone moved from the sidelines to the expanse of sand, but Lucy and Emmet remained intertwined where they were.

The reception went late into the night with every classification of dance imaginable, not that the newlyweds minded.

A little while later, desert had everyone's mouths watering. "Alright, let's cut the cake!" Emmet announced as he saw their six-tier, chocolate-fudge-ice-cream cake rolling out onto the sand.

Unikitty's eyes were all that were needed to tell how magnificent the cake was. As soon as the rich, two-feet wide cake was in her view, her eyes widened as large as the bottom tier. The cake, graced with strawberries, sprinkles, candy sparkles and glitter, was mesmerizing her. "I...want...it..."

Emmet giggled. "Don't worry, Unikitty. There's a spot in the back with extra glitter for you."

"Glitter..."

Lucy nudged her husband. "Ready to cut the cake?"

"Yup!"

They both took hold of the cake cutter, and sliced through two slices in the bottom tier together. Lucy carefully picked up a piece and said quickly, "Hey, Emmet, remember how I told you about that tradition where the newlyweds smash cake in each other's faces?"

Emmet nodded, still working to balance his own slice on his plate. "Yeah, what about–"

She would've smashed the cake into his face, but he had the same idea, and their slices collided together, spraying them both with frosting, fudge, and ice cream.

The pair started laughing, and eventually, everyone couldn't help but join in. "You win this round," Lucy laughed, wiping the cake off her face. "But just wait until we get home, I have a whole tub of icing for revenge."

Emmet leaned over and grabbed her in a hug. "Say cheese!"

Unikitty snapped a photo, one that would end up hanging on their wall for years to come; Emmet had his arms tightly around Lucy, beaming at the camera, while she smirked at him from the side.

The rest of the reception went by in a blur, some were eating, some were dancing, everyone was talking, but the newlyweds were saying goodbyes. "We're off to Barbados!" Emmet exclaimed, grabbing his red suitcase and tossing it in the sleek, chic, tar-black limo for the airport. "Is Lucy almost changed yet?"

Sweet shook her head. "Nope, she and Unikitty are still next door. A wedding dress is a lot more complicated to get out of than a tuxedo, y'know."

Emmet giggled, but not at Sweet's comment. "Hey uh, I think someone's here to see you," he said, looking just over Sweet's shoulder.

Benny, from behind Sweet, shook his head wildly, but ceased as soon as she turned around and replaced the action with mad blushing. "Oh…uh, hi! Sweet, I was…uh…would…I was wondering if you'd...wanna dance?"

The sentence was so stuttered out it was nearly like listening to someone speak in a foreign language.

Sweet giggled, her blush comforting and driving Benny's nerves into the ground at the same time. "Sure, let's go!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the sand, blissfully ignorant of how in shock he was.

Emmet giggled, waving to the pair. "Bye! I'll be at your wedding!" He couldn't wait to tell Lucy about this.

"Ready to go?" Lucy walked over, wearing a light, flowing, pink sundress that nearly yanked Emmet's heart out of his chest. "Don't worry," she answered to his love-struck look. "I'm wearing a longer skirt and t-shirt over this on the plane. _Someone_ thought it would be a good idea to give my wardrobe an update."

Unikitty smiled, proud of the insinuation. "Thanks!"

"Well, we're all ready to go." Emmet turned to Unikitty, giving her a huge hug. "Thanks, Unikitty. You're the best!"

Lucy joined in the hug as Unikitty blushed at her two best friends. "Aw, thanks, guys! Now go on, you have souvenirs to buy me!"

Rolling her eyes, Lucy hopped into the limo. "We know, we have your list."

"Yup! Have fun, we love you guys!" Unikitty waved as Emmet climbed into the limo, the guests shouting well-wishes and blowing bubbles towards them from the beach. The limo took off, headed for the airport, where they would catch a plane for Barbados.

#

"I can't wait to get there, I've never seen a shark!" Emmet exclaimed, looking out the airplane window onto the huge expanse of realms and worlds below them, the plane crashing through the air as they rocketed up into the air. "Lucy, should we try shark-diving?"

Lucy, from the seat next to him, was more than curious at Emmet's adventurous plans. "_You_ want to go swimming with sharks?"

Emmet shrugged. "Yeah, it's not like we're in there with them." He continued looking at the brochure, scanning for fun activities they could do.

"Emmet..." Rubbing his shoulder gently, she asked, "...what do you think swimming with sharks is?"

"It's where you get in a tank and swim next to a tank with sharks, right?" His naïve adorability never got old in Lucy's eyes.

Sweetly, and through a smile, she amended his explanation; "Actually, you dive with the sharks. In the same tank. With them."

"WHAT?!"

#

"Well, we're here!" Lucy threw her bag onto the plush carpet, admiring their room. She would be the first to admit that the room was marvelous; they had an infinity pool looking out onto the beach, a king-size bed with turquoise, beach-themed embellishments, a flat screen TV and sapphire couch. The entire room was madly state-of-the-art and chic, and the kitchenette was something out of a modern home magazine.

Emmet grinned, his hands snaking around his wife's waist. "What should we do?"

She could hardly hold back her smile as he kissed her, both slowly making their way to the bedroom. "I don't know," she murmured into his lips.

He shut the bedroom door behind them, his hands raising up her back as the kiss grew more passionate. She rested her elbows on his shoulders as her hands buried into his hair. Love. True, passionate, adoring love.

"I love you."

"I love you more."


	10. Don't Break My Heart

**A/N: Yay, you liked the last one! These reviews are SOOO nice, I love them! You guys are the best! I seriously didn't know so many people would like these! This one is shorter, not my favorite. And my Emmetstyle story, _Remembering You_, IS UP! YAY!**

* * *

"You're dead to me."

"Aw, Lucy…"

"Emmet, you stole all my money, you got me landed in jail, and you're just sitting there, rolling in cash."

"Is 'rolling' the right word?"

"Stop laughing."

Her command went unheard as Emmet exploded in another fit of laughter. "I-I'm sorry! You look so cute when you're mad!"

Rolling her eyes, Lucy picked up the dice. "You're going down, Brickowski."

Just as she was about to toss the white cubes of her Monopoly fate, the door burst open, throwing Unikitty at their feet in a frazzled, pink blur. "Uh, hi!" She smiled sheepishly, her sparkling eyes massive like a stuffed animal.

"Hey, Unikitty!" Emmet greeted, his smile better contrasting his girlfriend's sour frown. "What's up?"

Unikitty picked herself up, leaning up on the light blue table and pleading in Emmet's direction while Lucy watched with mixed feelings. "Well," she began, somewhat out of breath. "Sweet, Benny and I were playing, but then we found a huge, ugly rock in the middle of the field. Can you break it out of the way, with the Master Breaking thing?"

Seeing no reason not to, and his great love of helping people making itself known, Emmet shrugged. "Sure!" He hopped off his chair and stepped to his girlfriend's side, taking her hand in his own with a gentle touch. "You wanna come with us?"

The idea made her sick to her stomach – though she could never tell him that. "Why not?" She replied, all while many reasons rushed to the forefront of her mind and screeched at her like a warning siren.

The trio made their way down just a few blocks, coming to a small, fairy-tale field. A grass plain tinted with green food coloring would not have been as vibrant as this one. The clear sky was like a painting, the sun hanging above on a thin string, giving the viewer the warmth of winding down on vacation in the country. Despite that sick, hot pit in her stomach, Lucy found the place magnificent.

The place was picturesque, albeit a massive, gray wart on the simple grasslands.

"Hey, Emmet!" Sweet greeted, waving her hand atop the rock. "Can you get this thing out of the way? Benny keeps hiding behind it when we play tag." She shot a teasing glance his way as he attempted to defend himself.

"Boys versus girls isn't fair, there's one of me and two of you!" He laughed through the sentence, looking up to Sweet as he explained. "Come on, I'll help you down."

She ignored her rocket boots' offer, instead accepting the hand he gave. "Thanks," she said, a shy blush barely visible against the sweating sun.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Ok, come on, Emmet, can you just do it and get it over with?" It was a mutter, she wasn't mad enough to upset her friends, but she didn't particularly want to see her boyfriend use his 'wonderful' talent.

His girlfriend's off-putting disposition worried him, but he didn't love her for being a sweet, sugary cupcake all the time, after all, so he tried to ignore it. "Don't worry," he replied. "It'll be quick."

She watched, she could only watch, as he ran over to the boulder and the other three stepped back in giddy amusement. He knelt, gathered his strength, and burst up into the air like a loaded spring, crashing down on the bolder like a villain pouncing on the hero. She hid her wince – he didn't need to see her displeasure.

The clapping rang in her ears like an alarm clock on Saturday morning. "Great job, Emmet! Thanks!" Unikitty grinned and gave Emmet a hug.

Lucy walked over, giving her boyfriend a curt order. "Come on, let's go home."

Everyone around Lucy exchanged uneasy glances like notes in school, hidden from the teacher for fear of a repercussion. "Uh, sure, Lucy! Bye, guys!" Emmet waved as his girlfriend more-or-less dragged him through the field, his feet ripping grass as they went.

She released his hand when they made it to the sidewalk, but her jovial mood refused to return, cowering in fear underneath a dark cave.

Had he done something wrong? That question was not foreign to his mind, he often questioned himself before anyone else.

Emmet stole a glance at her while she was distracted with kicking a rock, like dribbling a soccer ball in front of her, the motion in time and steady as they walked. Her brows were knitted together, like she was looking at a math problem she couldn't understand. What was once a rosy hue to her cheeks was now an angry blank slate, hard and emotionless. "Uh, Lucy?" His voice was small and apologetic in nature as he interrupted what he assumed was an intense brooding session. "Are you ok?"

Her boyfriend's innocent, well-meaning question stole her heart, much like he had done when they met. "I'm fine," she answered shortly. The lie wasn't even earnest, she knew he didn't believe her, but she found sick comfort in the knowledge that he would not question her. It was in his personality to live-and-let-live, if it would make her happy.

Unfortunately for her estimate, Emmet was not prepared to let this one go. "Are...are you sure?" He reached over, enveloping her hand in his. "You can talk to me."

She knew that. Of course, she knew that. After a moment of healthy hesitation, she gripped his hand back. "Thanks," she mumbled through closed lips.

He had an interesting influence her, one that she never understood, or wanted to understand. He could open her up and read her like a child's book. The first time they had met he had done it. Easily and swiftly, he had picked the lock to her cold, dusty heart, waltzed in, and with a snap of his fingers, she was his. It was as simple as that, and, on most days, she wouldn't change it for the world.

They took a turn around a corner, which gave her a moment to collect her thoughts and get them ready for show-and-tell. "It's nothing, really." She persisted in her lie, but as he rubbed and caressed her hand, she knew she had not succeeded.

"Lucy, what is it? "He spoke freely as their feet left the cold sidewalk for the grass hilltops, the beginnings of path to home. "I'm here."

They rounded a small hill, and she used the opportunity to make mad dash for the house. "What-Lucy! Where are you going?" She could hear his shock – and hurt – in his choked voice as she ran farther and farther through the field of hills and mountains.

She couldn't tell him.

He wouldn't understand, and if he didn't understand, they would be in the same place, but with a sharp gap between their hearts.

She wouldn't let that happen.

Her cover, a much taller, wider green hill, hid her well from his view. "Please, just give up already," she whispered under damp, chocked breath.

"I'm not giving up," he replied. She bit her bottom lip. His voice was closer, she knew. Her eyes darted from grass to dirt, frantically searching for some shelter to build while her mind refused to give her the instructions.

Just as she got a sliver of a plan, Emmet tapped her on the shoulder. "Ah!" She was startled back, his honest and betrayed eyes burying deep into hers. "Uh, hi, Emmet."

"What are you hiding from me?" The question was more than what his words conveyed; he wanted to know everything.

She shook her head, dejected. "I can't tell you." The embarrassment rang clear through her voice.

He took her hands in his, holding her back from running away from him again. "Lucy, please, _please_ tell me. It's me."

"It's the Master Breaking."

He paused. "The Master Breaking? Why?"

Now that it was out, she could hardly stop herself from letting it all out, pouring every ounce of hurt and rejection she had felt from his unmatched talent. "It's all that's left of you that's Rex!" Her heart strings thrashed and tore apart in her throat as her emotions ripped raw through her words. "Every time you do it, I think of Rex! Every bit of him was gone when he disappeared, but you still remember the Master Breaking! It's always there, reminding...yelling at me that at any second, you could become him!"

"I almost lost you…" she murmured, after a beat of silence. "You were so close to becoming Rex forever…the breaking just reminds me how, even now, I could still lose you."

There were too many outcomes rushing through Lucy's head like a tidal wave, and none of them were pleasant. "I'm sorry, alright? Just forget about it, it's just–"

Her words halted in her breath as he reached forward, held her by the waist and kissed her.

She collapsed to the ground as he continued kissing her, running her hands into his hair and letting him deepen the kiss. She held him tight against her, arching her back and kissing him harder.

After moment he pulled back, a singular lock of hair out of place. She giggled and brushed it back. "Cute," she murmured, her cheeks still flushed a rosy shade from the lack of air.

"Lucy," his tone, firm and orderly with just a touch of gentle, sympathetic pleading, warmed and comforted her frazzled state of mind. "I will never do it again. But...you have to trust me and remember that I love you, and I'm never going to become Rex." With a gentle dip of his head and a soft kiss, he murmured, "I promise."

Sitting up to meet him better, she smiled beneath the kiss. "Promise?"

He nodded with a small smile on his face. "Uh-huh."

"Good. Because now I have to beat you in Monopoly."

"Whatever you want."


	11. My Emmet

**A/N: WOAH 60 REVIEWS WHAT THE HECKIE?! You're the best! Oh, should I write an American Revolution AU oneshot? This one isn't it, but I'm working on it. Tell me what you think. THANKS! I got Sandrastar1's request in here, and technically this is Excelll333/Excel's request (pretty sure you're the same person XD), too! This is set ****_BETWEEN_**** LM1 and LM2. I mean, they had to have some good times during the apocalypse, right? I'm worried if this one's good tho, but I hope someone likes it! Thanks as always!**

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_4 Years after Lego Movie 1…_

The sun pulled and tugged with gentle flares at Lucy's consciousness, and she yanked it right back with a determined jerk. The country sun glared, refracted through her window, and sent a beam right into her eyes. Her skin already burned at the thought of walking underneath the sun for more than five minutes.

However, torturous fire turned to mystical warmth at the thought of _whom _she would be strolling with under the sun.

Emmet.

In just four short years, she had come to love the man like she never knew she could. He was sweet, caring, and paid attention to her, treating her like she was queen of the world. It was a refreshing change from Batman, who barely noticed when she walked into a room.

The moment she sat up, she recognized a light, upbeat double-knock at her guest-room door. "Come in, Emmet."

He opened the door, still in his pajamas, and peeked in. "Morning, Lucy!" His voice was chipper, in an adorable, Sunday-morning-breakfast sort of way. After she motioned silently for him to come in, he shut the door with a soft and careful touch and ran over to her. "How'd you sleep?"

She smiled. "Pretty good, thanks. I was just thinking about places to hide from your mom." The comment was not meant in a harsh way, no matter how it sounded, she merely did not like getting the evil eye from her boyfriend's mother.

Emmet's smile softened. Joining her on the bed, he took her hand in his. "I love you, that's all that matters, right?"

Within these walls, whatever walls, she could pull the drawstring to her castle barriers and let him in. Him, and only him. "Promise?" The question was pathetic and juvenile. She knew that. She also had a hard time quelling the hungry yearning for him in her heart, and the cruel desire for reassurance in her frazzled mind.

He saw her nervous energy, and, not wanting her to feel anything less than perfect happiness, grasped her hand tighter. "I promise, forever and ever."

She smiled, the oath all she needed to call her charisma back. "Much better. So, what are your plans for me today?"

The smile on his face was contagious. "Oh, you'll love it! First, we'll have breakfast with my family, then I'll show you the big playground –"

"Woah, woah, Emmet." She interrupted him with a wave of her hand, shaking her black locks wildly. "I was hoping I could, y'know, _not _face your mom."

She wished she hadn't said it the moment the words left her lips.

His embarrassed, borderline apologetic downward curve of his quivering lips broke her armored heart to shards. "I know it's not easy…" His grasp on her hand lessened, as if he was about to walk away from her. "…but I really want you both to get along. I love you both a lot." He didn't need to mention the question of marriage, in which _parents_ were certainly a factor.

Shaking her head, she grabbed his hand tighter so he couldn't leave her. "Emmet, I'm sorry. I want this to work out to, I'm just afraid it won't."

_I'm afraid you'll leave me. _

After all, if I boy had to choose between his girlfriend of three years and his mother of his whole life, who would he choose? Logic dictated the latter, unfortunately for Lucy.

Ella, Emmet's mother, was a beautiful woman with a hidden heart that she chose not to extend to Lucy. She had rose to her cheeks and filled out her dress, giving her life and character. Her hair matched Emmet's chocolate locks, and wore his same joyful face. Well, except when she was around Lucy.

Emmet leaned forward, breaking her introspection, to gently kiss her lips. She smiled beneath the kiss; he always knew just when she needed a hug, a kiss, a warm word, or a little reassurance. She practically had to clobber Batman over the head to get him to pay attention to her when they had dated.

"No matter what happens," he vowed with a soft kiss. "You and I stay together forever."

She did not try to hide her giggle. "Special best friends?"

"Foreva."

After gracing him with one last kiss, she separated with a reluctant sigh. "Ok, I'll meet you for breakfast in a minute, I have to get dressed." She motioned to her black t-shirt and matching leggings, and to his blue-and-white pajamas. "And so do you."

He smiled, standing up with her. "Yeah, you're right. I'll go change." He leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Love you!"

She watched him, almost in a lovesick trance, as he walked out the door. "Love you too."

After he had gone, she got herself dressed in her usual wear. If there was one area, besides Emmet, that she would battle his mother to the end on, it was what she wore.

Peeking into her black-leather suitcase, Lucy's eyes darted to the one unnatural inhabitant – a sundress with spaghetti straps, as orange as the beginning of a country sunrise, and cut just where it would fall at her knees. On its waistline lay a yellow sticky-note.

_Just thought you might want to wear something different on your vacation! Besides, I know even you won't be able to wear a hoodie in ninety-degree weather._

_Anyhoo, just picked this up for you, I think you'll look super cute! Everyone back in Apocalypseburg misses you, and we love you lots!_

_Unikitty_

Lucy smirked. If there was one thing she could count on Unikitty for, it was her well-meaning, sometimes pesky nature to poke her head into anyone's business. It could be helpful, it could be incredibly bothersome, or it could be conflicting, like this dress.

The dress would certainly affect Emmet. Perhaps even his mother would be more approving, as opposed to what she had informally dubbed under angry breath, 'Goth with Colorful Accents'

However, it was too risky of a move to make, so she folded the top back over and hastily clutched her hoodie and leggings. Safe, reliable, old. Just what she needed.

After getting herself dressed and ready, Lucy walked out of her room and down the hallway, into the kitchen, where Emmet's father, Robert, and sister, Amanda, were sitting down to breakfast.

"Morning, darlin!" Robert greeted. Robert was a colossal, in-charge farmer who could arm wrestle a boxer one-handed and win without breaking a sweat. His charismatic attitude put Lucy at home, a stark and fresh change from Ella. His hair and face matched Emmet's with an uncanny air. "What will ya be having for breakfast?"

"Whatever you're having is fine," Lucy replied, taking her seat in a wooden, chalk-painted chair next to Amanda.

Now, if there was one girl that Lucy never would have guessed was Emmet's sister, it was Amanda.

Sixteen-year old Amanda was graced with flowing, puffed-and-fluffed brown locks, curled and twisted as they lay around her shoulders. Her beauty contrasted her typical 'hermit' personality, never once looking away from her phone unless instructed or interested in something else. However, in the day since Lucy had met her, she had found her to be a charming girl, just a tad shy without the confidence to get past it.

"Morning, how'd you sleep? That's nice, glad to hear it, see ya at lunch." Amanda uttered the entire sentence without moving her headphones an inch, or looking a glance away from her phone. Lucy believed that she had scripts memorized.

Lucy chuckled. "Morning."

Robert shook his head with a laugh. "Where's Emmet? Still sleeping?" He slid a steaming plate of bacon and eggs across the wood-grain table towards Lucy, and she caught it without a missing beat. The smell of home cooked breakfast combated, and won, against the fresh air and daisies that wafted in from the open windows. The place reminded her of home from the moment she had arrived.

"Nope, he's getting dressed, probably taking forever with his hair." On more than one occasion, Lucy had told Emmet how cute she found his hair in the mornings, not that it stopped him from practically greasing it back every morning.

"Hey, I heard that!" Emmet exclaimed, poking his head out from the hallway.

Lucy's eyes nearly bulged at Emmet's outfit. As opposed to his usual vest, he now wore a white T-shirt, laced with spots of old, stubborn stains, patches, and stitches. His white-washed jeans grew his stature, it seemed, as he walked over to his dad to help with the food. "Need help, dad?"

Robert chuckled, pointing to his gaping girlfriend. "Nope, but you might wanna kiss your girlfriend good morning."

"Emmet, you look great!" Lucy exclaimed, the words coming out through a wide, shocked smile. After all, as tough as she seemed to be, she was a woman, and the sight of her boyfriend in farm clothes had a certain effect on her.

That was mainly head-over-heels lovesickness.

"Thanks! You like it?" He walked across the room towards Lucy, straightening out his shirt. "I found it in my closet, I haven't worn it in forever." Sitting down, he gave the room a few quick glances before kissing her. "Morning, again."

She smiled. "Morning."

Ella practically trampled the sweet, tender moment.

As she walked in, every muscle in Lucy's body gripped onto her bones with fright and panic.

_Well, that was nice, for the five minutes it lasted._

"Good morning, Ella!" Robert announced in a booming voice, kissing his wife good morning. Whereas Robert supported Emmet's relationship to the fullest, Ella was, well...hesitant, to say the least.

"Morning, Robert," she replied, rosy cheeks against her smile. "Morning, Amanda! I got you a new speaker, the three-hundred dollar one!"

"Cool," Amanda replied, eyes fixated on the video of her new favorite TV show from the 1950's.

Ella laughed. "See, ya can tell her anything if she's got those things on her head. Morning, Emmet."

"Morning, mom! How'd you sleep?" He pulled a seat, thankfully, next to him and away from Lucy for Ella.

"Pretty good, but someone kept snoring." She shot a teasing glance at her husband, who had his hands up in a surrendering-wave as everyone laughed.

Stealing the moment, Lucy tried to make some amount of conversation. "I think Emmet inherited it, I discovered he snored when we fell asleep watching a movie."

"That's nice, dear," Ella responded, her voice as dry as grass in a drought. She switched her focus to her son, rubbing his back in a warm, motherly fashion. "Emmet, have ya'll been eating?"

Before his mother had begun the sentence, Emmet grabbed a plate of eggs and toast. "Yup!"

Just as Ella opened her mouth to voice her approval, Emmet emitted a loud, popping, hiccup.

He blushed. "Heh, sorry." He hiccupped again.

Ella waved her hands, calling for peace. "Don't worry, hon, I got just the thing." As she walked back to the kitchen, Emmet, Robert, and even Amanda exchanged worried glances, like soldiers hiding from the enemy just a few paces away.

Ella grabbed a variety of salts, powders, and liquids, mixing them all in a Tupper wear container as Emmet hiccupped and gagged at the sight. "Oh, hush," Emmet's mother instructed. With one finally pinch of salt, or, _something, _she shook the pistachio, guppy, dense liquid that really could've been considered a solid, as certain areas clumped together into black specks. "This will help."

Lucy hid her gag well as she looked at the cold, gloppy concoction in Emmet's trembling hands.

Emmet looked up to his mother with a pleading look. "Mom, do I–" He hiccupped. "– have to?"

She smirked. "I believe you've answered that for yourself, darling, now drink up."

"Ugh, Emmet, do it fast, I'm about to lose my breakfast." Amanda shook her head in disgust before turning back to the safety of her phone and away from the vile liquid.

After another hiccup, Emmet grabbed Lucy's hand, sucked a breath of courage into his lungs, and gulped down the blend in one quick swig. "Aw, bleh!"

Everyone waited, and, after the moment had toyed with them long enough, Emmet hiccupped.

"Huh," Emmet's mother regarded her son's lack of cure with a puzzled countenance. "It always works!"

With cheeks flushing like a red dress from a mystery movie, he turned to Lucy. "Hey, uh, Lucy, could you…do it? It worked the last time." His lips quivered as he attempted to keep the smile off his face, a difficult, strenuous battle, one that he was losing, inch by inch.

Lucy was taken aback. "Here? Now?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Uh, mom," He turned to his mystified mother and handed her the empty container. "Don't worry, this always works."

Lucy shrugged. After all, nothing she had done thus far had done her relationship with Ella any good, and nothing she did could worsen it, so there was no real harm. With a small smile that she failed to bite back, Lucy grabbed Emmet by the shoulders and kissed him with passion far too intense for Ella's sake.

Robert's face revealed fatherly pride, Amanda struggled with pain not to laugh, and Ella's mortified face could have appeared in horror films.

Unaware of where his breath had flown to, Emmet relaxed as Lucy deepened the kiss, smiling throughout.

After giving the kiss a moment or so longer than it really required, Lucy set back in her chair. "Better?" She soon blushed after her question, for it exited though a small pant for breath.

Emmet paused, waiting a few moments for hiccups that never came. He smiled brightly at his girlfriend. "Yup! Thanks!"

Ella huffed. "Well," she said, a fabricated smile on her pursed lips. "I suppose, uh, _that, _could work, too." She sat down next to her son, and the whole table ignored Amanda's mutter about the awkward turn.

Lucy covered her sigh. Nothing she could do or say from this point on would win Ella's approval. When they had first met, Lucy hadn't even done anything wrong! For goodness sakes, she had practiced her line in the mirror sixty times before they left.

Yesterday…

_"Well, we're here!" The car's tire skidded to a painful stop in the jagged, coarse driveway, expelling fireworks of dirt and dusty all the way to the windshield. "Wait, hang on, Lucy," he said the moment he saw her unbuckling._

_Lucy watched with piqued curiosity as he hopped out of the car, ran around, opened her door, and took her hands. "My mom will kill me if she catches me letting you get out of the car yourself," He uttered his proclamation with a small smile. _

_Lucy giggled, hopping out with the support to his hand. "Wow, Emmet, it's beautiful! And hot." She looked up to the blistering, dazzling sun as if to ask it if it had chosen this day in particular to display its talent. Perhaps her black, heavy, long-sleeved hoodie wasn't the best choice._

_Emmet laughed. "Yeah, it gets hot here, but you'll get used to it."_

_Lucy admired the sights as Emmet ran around the trunk to retrieve their bags. She didn't know where or when the farm ended, but she certainly didn't want to walk to the border. Her legs wouldn't last that unknown trek, especially in the searing heat. However, there was one destination she assumed she could walk, and that was the house. The small, quaint cottage perched at the end of a winding driveway, run down with tire and bike tracks. The house was painted a pastel yellow, like a sundress from a romantic 50s movie. She could spot several barns around the farm here and there, all characteristic of children's books. It was a _very_ welcome change from the ruins of Bricksburg. "You liked growing up here?"_

_Emmet nodded, crashing the trunk shut and scooping up their bags. "Yeah, it's all I've ever really known. My dad thought I was nuts for wanting to move to the city, but I guess it worked out pretty well for me, right?" He shot her a small, thankful glance, which she returned. _

_Lucy smiled. "So, you gonna try to impress me with your farm know-how?"_

_Emmet's glances shifted to the side of the rode, focusing on the bed of roses and daises. "Heh, maybe..."_

_Her sweet Emmet. Grabbing his hand, they began the journey up the winding driveway towards the house. "You told your parents that I'm not exactly a country girl, right?"_

_"Are kidding? I text them a picture of the two of us every week! Oh, speaking of, don't we look cute in this one?" Emmett swiped out his phone to the lock screen, and Lucy smiled at the picture, a snapshot of them on the couch. He grinned at the camera while she lay, asleep, in his lap. "It's one of my favorites."_

**_I must be blushing so hard you can't see my freckles. _**

_Lucy smiled and nodded. "I remember that, I fell asleep because we watched that movie five times."_

_Emmet started laughing. "Come on, it's a good movie!"_

_"It's a 1950's romantic comedy! I didn't even know you liked that stuff."_

_By the time they got to the doorstep, their laughter could overtake a crowd's cheers. "Well, here we are! You ready?" He started rubbing her shoulder gently with a sympathetic smile. _

_Lucy shrugged. "As I'll ever be."_

_Emmet knocked on the white-washed wooden door, and Lucy silently commanded her twisting, biting stomach to behave itself._

_The door opened, and a man who looked like he could wrestle you with one hand stepped out. "Emmet, you're home!" He grabbed Emmet in a hug, who surprisingly met the hug with similar strength. _

_"Hi, Dad!" Emmet replied. Pulling away, he wrapped and arm around Lucy's shoulders. "Dad, this is Lucy, my girlfriend."_

_Robert smiled warmly at her. "Well, it's great to meet you, Lucy! I'm Robert, Emmet calls me every week talkin' about you, he loves you a lot."_

_Lucy stole a shy glance at Emmet, who was blushing like red M&Ms. "Dad…"_

_Lucy smiled and stuck out her hand. "Thank you, it's great to meet you. I can see where Emmet got his looks from." She only could say that line without cringing because she had practiced it, and several other lines, in the mirror fifty-six times._

_Robert laughed and elbowed Emmet. "Keep a hold of this one, Emmet. She's good for you."_

_Emmet gave Lucy a smile. "Don't I know it."_

_"Well, come on inside!" Robert opened the door wide, letting them both in and taking the bags. "Amanda, they're here, come say hi to your brother!"_

_Amanda stepped out of the hallway. The sun, roaring through the window, reflected off her pink-and-blue braces. "Hey, Emmet!" _

_Emmet grinned and ran over to his sister, scooping her up in a hug like she was seven. "Amanda, I've missed you!"_

_Amanda rolled her eyes. "Ok, get off me, hug's over."_

_Emmet pulled back and grinned sheepishly, looking to Lucy. "Heh, she's always like this. "He rushed to Lucy, grabbed her hand, and dragged her over to his sister. "Amanda, this is my girlfriend, Lucy!"_

_"Hi," Lucy greeted, somewhat awkwardly. Man, was she glad Emmet didn't have a big family. That would be heck. "Emmet's told me a lot about you."_

_Amada looked Lucy up and down, a judge before the guilty man. Emmet's eyes pleaded, Lucy's begged, and Robert's threatened a loss of technology if she didn't behave herself. _

_"Don't believe all of it," Amanda replied, giving Lucy a small smile. She turned to Emmet. "Approved, bro."_

_Emmet hugged Lucy tightly and buried his face in her hair. "See, I told you!"_

_Amanda laughed at her brother's incurable optimism. "Uh, I wouldn't be so sure, Mom hasn't met her."_

_Lucy's panic flew back to her like a jet. "Emmet, do you want to show me something? Like the whole farm, the guest room, wherever your mom isn't?"_

_Emmet shook his head reassuringly. He began rubbing her arms in a firm yet lazy motion, up and down. The rocking motion soothed her, and had done so in the past years. "Don't worry, my mom will love you."_

_"Emmet, my darling!" Ella appeared in the doorway, outstretching her arms towards Emmet and smiling with tears dropping from her eyes._

_"Hi, mom!" Emmet gave her a huge hug._

_Lucy took the moment to take in some deep, unhelpful breathes like Unikitty had advised before they had left. Would his mother like her? Would she hate her? Would they coexist? Who knew?_

_Emmet stepped back and wrapped a snug arm around Lucy's waist. "Mom, this is Lucy, my girlfriend." _

_Lucy stuck out her hand. "Hi, it's great to meet you. Emmet's told me a lot about you, you have an amazing son."_

**_Please, please don't hate me._**

_Ella cordially shook her hand. "Pleasure's all mine, Lucy. Emmet, show her the guest room, we're having lunch in an hour."_

_Ella walked back where she came, and a thousand pounds of air escaped in the group's sighs. _

_Lucy turned to Emmet with a distraught face of defeat. "See? She hates me!"_

Well, Lucy regarded with a bitter mentality, she certainly hadn't changed much in a day.

Emmet was her whole life. She would do anything, protect him from everyone, and say anything to keep him from getting hurt. However, the one other woman in the world who shared those interests happened to _hate_ Lucy. Perhaps that was the problem. Was she intruding on Ella's territory by caring for Emmet? Was she hogging him, in her eyes?

Lucy tried to erase the thought from her mind, instead turning to her boyfriend. "Emmet, you won't believe what I found from Unikity in my suitcase this morning."

"Well, I certainly hope it wasn't anything offensive," Ella commented, a crude, off-hand laugh crashing through the room.

Robert gave his wife a look that she completely ignored. "Was it perhaps a brighter dress? You should try it, darling, it may do you some good."

"Uh, Lucy?" Emmet stood up, his seat creaking against the floor. "Do you want to see the playground set in the backward I told you about?" His eyes pleaded with her to come, and the way he bit his bottom lip nearly dragged her outside.

Lucy nodded quickly to ease the awkward moment. Maybe, just maybe, Ella would get the hint, and start to pull back a little. "Yeah, sure, Emmet. Thanks for the breakfast!"

Catching the hand that he extended out, the pair ran out through the screen door and into the freedom of the fields.

"Now, Ella…" Robert's stern look would've frightened herds of bulls, but his wife merely waved it off. "Was that really the way to treat the poor girl? She's trying real hard to get your approval, the least you could do is try."

From beneath her headphones and inside her own, fictional world, Amanda piped up. "Yeah, mom, you're acting sort of brutal."

"I'm sorry my mom's acting, y'know…" Emmet trailed off as they stepped from the porch and onto the grass.

"Brutal?" Lucy supplied.

Emmet nodded. "Yeah."

They let the hot hair overtake the silence between them. The field was enormous – it expanded and stretched like an elastic ocean, hooked onto the four corners of the farm. Lucy could hardly see the end of it. Letting her eyes flutter shut, she inhaled a long-winded, thick lungful of country air. The smell of freshly-cute grass, varieties of strange flowers, and the pure, untainted waves of clean, farm air gave her entire being a sense of calm, and she savored the air as long as she could.

"Feels good, huh?" Emmet piped up from beside her, giving her a soft nudge. "I always miss the air here, it's different from the city."

"It's nice."

The walk lasted only a few short minutes until they came to a small, hand-built swing set. The color scheme was something out of a children's book, every component was either blue, yellow, or red, and it had a childlike simplicity to it that one craved for as an adult. The slide bumped over invisible humps three times, worn from use and play. Two swings lay next to it, a monkey bar set across from them, and various other climbing and crawling mechanisms lay around the set.

Lucy spoke after a moment of quiet respect. "Did your dad build this?"

"Yeah, Amanda and I always wanted a swing set."

She smiled at her boyfriend. Now, out in the countryside air, his mother didn't seem to have as much of an effect on them. She, and all their other problems, seemed distant. Irrelevant. Miniscule. Petty, even.

"You know what?" Her voice, choked with new vigor, broke him out of his trance. She tapped him gently on the shoulder. "Tag, you're it."

"Hey!" He shouted as his girlfriend took off as if she had rocket shoes, running clear across the playground. His words left him through bubbly laugh. "I wasn't ready!"

"That's the point!" She made a break for the swings, pushing them behind her as she sprinted so they would crash into his view.

He chased her across the monkey bars, under the slide, and nearly got her as she slid between two sets of stairs. "Lucy! You're killing me!"

His words nearly echoed. Her panting, convulsing back pressed again the bottom of the tomato-red slide, and she took a few glances around. She had lost him, even in such a small area. Her breathes, ragged and struggling to catch up with her child-like energy, begged for mercy as she took a few inhales of the country air and pollen-filled wind.

"Lucy!" Emmet called. She could hear him walking slowly, his voice traveled in a drawn-out pace across and around the playground.

Ignoring the longing to shout something back to him, she stayed silent, instead using the free moments to catch her breath.

_This_ was her favorite part of her life. Just letting herself go, all her exteriors, tough-attitudes and secrets just fell from her heart when they were vulnerable, together, like this. She never had to pretend how she felt, she could tell him exactly what she thought, and he would know what to say.

"Gotcha!" Her moment was interrupted by Emmet popping out and grabbing her by the waist. "I found you!"

He artfully muffled her yelp of shock, pressing his lips against hers.

Melting into his embrace, she softened as he warmly, carefully, pressed her up against the slide. Her hair fell limply, damp with sweat, and stuck to her forehead as he kissed her harder.

"I love you," she murmured into his mouth, kissing him repeatedly.

Her feet gave up on her, and she collapsed to the ground, never once letting him break their kiss. "I love you too," he muttered in reply.

"Eh-hem." A coarse, crude cough sounded from just a few paces away.

Emmet pulled away, but she could still feel his sigh against her cheek. She nearly thought he whispered a small, 'sorry' under his breath in advance. She wished to tell him it wasn't his fault of she was a terrible girlfriend.

They pulled back, cheeks as red and vibrant as the slide while they avoided Ella's gaze. "Uh, hey, mom," Emmet greeted.

"I don't approve of such..." Ella searched for the most delicate word to describe the scene that she had witnessed. "...displays of affection."

Emmet stood up, helping Lucy to her feet. "Mom, we were just kissing."

"More hiccups, I assume?"

Emmet, hidden by a cave of shy insecurity, refused to respond.

"Darlin, is this really what you want?" Ella's comment ignored Lucy as she took a few paces towards her son. Emmet appeared to shrink by the second, losing his age and morphing back into a seven-year-old. "Some goth, fly-by girl who won't remember your name next week?"

"Hey!" Lucy protested. She stepped up to her own defense. There was a line between respecting his mother and turning into a doormat, and Lucy wasn't about to cross over that line. "Emmet and I have been dating for years, I'm not just going to leave him on a whim!"

Shaking her head, Ella clicked her tongue in a pompous attitude. "How do you know? After all, didn't you once date Batman?"

"Aren't I entitled to a mistake?"

Ella's eyes, bloodshot and blazing, cooled like a lake. She pulled back onto her heels and stared her son down like a boxer in the ring. "Emmet, I'll trust you to make the right decision." She walked off, leaving her son in a quiet, helpless mess.

Fuming with defensive, objective attitude and anger, Lucy spun to face Emmet, her rage's nearest target. "Why didn't you defend me?!" Lucy's anger was like a heat-seeking missile; it destroyed anything and everything that breathed in its path.

Emmet winced weakly, hardly any emotion across his face. "I'm sorry," he muttered in a fragile tone. His eyes stuck to the hot, dry grass.

"Sorry?!" She exploded, stomping her foot. Overreacting? Possibly. "Emmet, how can you just stand there and watch your mother...belittle me like that?!" The longer her eyes burned holes into his head, the more reasons she found to be angry with him.

"I'm sorry."

His defiant response hurt his nonexistent case. Tears dripped from his eyes as he uttered his only excuse. "Lucy, I just...I really want you two to get along."

She scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. Her own tears pricked and prodded her eyes, fighting a revolution to show themselves, but she wouldn't have it. She wouldn't let him see her cry, not now. "Great job."

Even through the window of her temper, she could see the crack in his heart. "Lucy, I don't know what to do."

"Wouldn't be the first time."

It was the final straw, and she knew that. His lip quivered, and his pained eyes finally lifted to meet her apprehensive gaze. "I... I guess I'll go inside, then." Hurt, betrayed, and forgotten, he kicked off against the ground and made a dash for the house. Lucy was left, alone, in the middle of the playground.

Her feet gave way, and she plummeted to the ground in tired defeat.

What had she done?

#

The night was hot and quiet.

Crickets chirped in high-pitches, snapping any chance of sleep that Lucy had like twigs. The night had fallen like a dense, sweat-soaked blanket over the countryside, providing what heat the sun had forgotten to leave behind. Lucy flipped over again in bed and kicked off the lavender sheets with a sputter. The heat inched through her skin and into her bones. Several times throughout her sleepless night she had contemplated what heatstroke felt like. She tossed her pillow over in hopes that the reverse side would be at least three degrees cooler, and to her dismay, she found it just as unbearably sticky and scorching.

Rubbing her face, she berated herself for her cruel actions. Every hour that ticked by on her clock cursed her out, reprimanded her, and gifted her with a stern lecture on how terribly she had treated Emmet. She hadn't seen him since their fight. Perhaps it was better that way, she couldn't hurt him if she didn't see him.

_I'm sorry._

The words were conventional, cheap, and clueless. Society had uttered them so many times prior, they held no meaning for anyone. How was she supposed to tell him how much her heart ached without him, how hard her gut twisted without him?

A sob punched and harassed her throat as she ordered it back down.

There was nothing she could do. She had already uttered the cruel insults, now there was no taking them back. It was done, finished, game-over.

However...

A thought struck her mind.

The heat that had once exhausted her now fueled every inch of her body as she burst out of the bed, crashing her feet softly onto the carpet and towards her suitcase. It only took her a minute to pack and slip into her hoodie. She dialed for a taxi to meet her, her breath spurting in quick, anxious pops.

She zipped her bag, click by click, and grabbed the strap before slinging it over her shoulder. She could taste sweat on her lips as she twisted, with a light touch, the silver knob and allowed the door to glide open. With a longing, pained look towards Emmet's room, she made her way to the house entrance.

She had hardly touched the door when a voice, calm yet threatening, like the villain of a mysterious horror film, interrupted her. It chilled Lucy's bones to static. "Where are you going?" Not a single word was emphasized, every syllable was monotonous.

Turning to face her fate, Lucy's eyes met Ella's. The darkness covered her, but she could see a glint, a fleeting spark, of curiosity in her eyes. "I'm…leaving." The honesty tasted foul on her lips.

Ella leaned against the hallway walls, rubbing her hand over the corner as she questioned in an offhand voice, "Why?"

"Emmet and I had a fight," she answered simply. Simple questions, simple answers.

"You really love him, don't you?" There was something in her face that Lucy couldn't see, but she could hear. The rays of darkness covered Ella's face, but her inflection sounded betrayed. She sounded like someone who had been turned back on.

Lucy nodded, leaning back against the door with a sigh. "Yeah, I do."

"Then why are you leaving? Because of a silly fight?"

Lucy shook her head, and her grip tightened on the pink strap of her bag, crushing the material in her hand. "He'll be happier here without me. I'm not leaving-leaving, just leaving, I'll wait for him back home." Yes. If she waited for him, he could be happy here, then they could be happy together at home. Everyone would be happy.

Unfortunately for Lucy's detailed and thoroughly rushed plan, Ella had a counter argument. "I may not know what my son sees in you, but I do know that he'll be heartbroken. You know him, Lucy. What will he think when he wakes up and you're not here?"

"He'll hate me," she replied, her breath hot and conflicted.

Lucy could just make out Ella shaking her head. "No, but he'll hate himself."

She hadn't thought about that, but she knew Ella was right. Emmet would blame himself, it was in his nature, his character to condemn himself before anyone else.

Tilting her head up to face Ella, she asked the one question that could have fixed everything from the start. "Why don't you like me?"

Ella shook her head, blonde hair swishing against the cool air. It was chillier in the kitchen, with the open windows and screen doors. Lucy could see the hints and splashes of emotion in Ella's face as she sat down at the table. Her hands wrapped around a coffee mug in deep thought. "It's nothing against you, per-say. Emmet is my baby boy, my first. I never wanted him to move to the city, and I always held out hope that he would come back." Ella's reminiscent smile faltered, and, for the first time, Lucy heard the woman's voice crack under the intense weight of emotion. "When…when he met you, you were his everything. He sent me videos, pictures, stories, all of them about you. You were the cause for every one of his smiles."

She took a drawn-out sip of her coffee mug. "One day, I was getting breakfast ready, and Emmet called me. He asked me what women looked for in a husband. After I gave him some advice, he said he had to go. Finally, I knew he was never coming back."

Lucy said nothing. How could she? Was this the burden of all mothers, the curse of watching their sons leave them? "I'm sorry," she mumbled, sounding very much like Emmet had a few hours prior. "I really love Emmet."

Ella turned up from her mug, her face honest and vulnerable. "I know you do, dear, and that's all I can really ask for." It was her white flag, her surrender.

Lucy smiled, and a thousand tons fell from her shoulders. "Thanks."

After a brief beat of silence, Ella stood up, something like cooperation in her eyes. She tilted her head, as if nodding to the notion she next proposed. "I think it may be in Emmet's best interest if we try to put our differences aside. For him, of course."

"I'd like that," Lucy replied in a quiet voice. A sigh left her lips. She finally released her death grip on her bag, instead letting it hang limply in her hand as Ella motioned to the hallway.

"Good." She nodded and stepped to the side. "Now, why don't you go see him. Don't worry, he's still up, I heard him pacing in his room, and we both know how he gets without his sleep." She chuckled slightly. It was the beginning of a mutual friendship, for Emmet's sake.

Lucy smiled. "Hey, he won't have to comb down his hair in the morning."

Ella sighed through a smile and muffled her laugh with her hand. "Go on, say hi, I'm going back to bed. Robert is even worse without a good night's shut eye, if you can believe that."

"Thanks, Ella."

With another tip of her head at her bedroom door, Ella smiled. "No problem. Good night, Lucy."

"Good night."

Ella turned and walked into her bedroom, shutting the door softly behind her, leaving Lucy facing Emmet's bedroom door. She knocked softly three times, and that familiar friend, her anxious, biting energy jumped right back in.

"Come in, mom." Emmet sounded as though he had been crying.

Lucy opened the door and peeked in. "Sorry, not mom."

He looked up, a painter's pallet of emotions spraying across his face. He sat at the edge of the bed with tears across his face. "Oh, uh, Lu-Lucy, uh…" His voice broke and cracked in her presence. "Hey, I-I was just…"

"Emmet, don't worry, I'm not mad anymore." She sighed at the returning thought of her own cruelty. After she shut the door behind her and walked over to him, she sat next to him and took his hand. "I'm sorry, by the way. I was a jerk."

He shook his head. "No, you weren't. I was a baby."

She chuckled. "Maybe we were both just upset and took it in different ways." She took in a calming breath. "Either way, I'm sorry. But, your mom and I talked."

His hand gripped hers tighter, and his smile returned to his face. "Really?" The child-like hopefulness in his voice broke through the mist of apologetic, quiet air.

Nodding, she rested her head on his shoulder and let her eyes shut. Even just being away from him for a few hours, she missed his touch, his voice, _him_. "Yeah, we're ok now."

He wrapped a warm arm snug around her. She hardly heard him mumble, 'Thank you' under his breath, but she nestled farther into his embrace anyway. "My three favorite girls all like each other. Well, assuming Amanda has actually seen you through her headphones."

"I'm glad too," she replied. She suspected that she was happier than him, after all, if she got along well with his family, perhaps that could lead to a certain someone getting another certain someone's last name on a certain day…

Sitting up, she took both of his hands in her, a wicked smile on her face that he recognized all too well. "I missed you," she murmured. Already lost in his eyes, she leaned forward and kissed him as his arms tightened around her waist.

"You know what?" She broke the kiss, but her smile remained in place. "We leave tomorrow, right?" After he nodded, she continued. "Well, you never did show me the farm, or impress me with whatever you have to know to run this place." She smiled slightly, kissing him again. "We're both up already, anyway."

He grinned and grabbed her hand. "I love you. Come on!" He whisked her out the door, and she giggled the whole way outside.

#

The next morning…

Lucy stood at the porch, savoring the sweet, crisp taste of the country air one last time. She had grown so accustomed to it in one weekend. A quick, fleeting chill flew past her shoulders, and it was a refreshing and pleaded-for change compared to the savannah of yesterday. She could spot Emmet across the driveway, throwing his bags into the trunk with some effort.

Taking careful consideration to hold the bag in front of her, just close enough to cover most of her form, she made the drawn-out walk towards her boyfriend. Her heart beat at twice the rate and her breath struggled to get a word in.

After a few precarious, quaking seconds, she took the last steps of courage towards her boyfriend and his family. "I've got my bag," she said, throwing it across the parched grass and into his hands.

"Great, I thought you weren't even gonna–" Emmet's words skidded to an abrupt and aching stop. Lucy crossed and uncrossed her arms as he stared on. Well, it certainly had the desired effect, she mused.

"What do you think?" She asked, a teasing, cocky air tinting her embarrassed voice. Regret blended with satisfaction as her insides hollered contradicting messages at her. She flared out the orange dress with a graceful touch, as the wind lifted and carried the ends to flutter against her legs. The dress gave her an elegant, feminine feeling, an emotion she wasn't used to, but thoroughly enjoyed. No matter what ventures she discovered wearing the dress, it was worth it, just because of the way Emmet's eyes bulged.

"Hey, you look great!" Amanda, from the side, gave Lucy an enthusiastic thumbs-up and nod of approval.

Robert pat his frozen son on the back. "Emmet, if you don't treat this lady right, I'll come all the way down to the city to have a talk with you!"

"Dear, you look fantastic!" Ella walked over to Lucy with a motherly smile and a common ground that all women shared, the want to feel beautiful, and the desire to be recognized for doing so. "It's beautiful, where did you get it?"

"A friend gave it to me," Lucy replied. She pasted a mental note in her mind to thank Unikitty, who would be over the moon at being 'right' about her hunch. Goodness, it would make her day to know Lucy had even touched the dress.

Finally, Lucy moved past Emmet's family towards her boyfriend. "Emmet?"

The spell broken, Emmet reached forward and he grabbed her in a kiss.

The insignificant crumb of embarrassment that crept into her cheeks faltered, struggled, and fought before dying on the spot. It was replaced with fresh passion as she kissed him deeper and melted into his arms. The family cheered, hollered, and whistled behind them, but she paid no mind.

"I love you," he murmured, drawing back onto his heels.

She flushed, aware of his family yet oblivious at the same time. "I love you too."

Robert chuckled. "Ok, come on, you two, I understand you have an apocalypse to get back to? It hasn't hit us much here, something about aliens?" He scratched his head at the strange yet seemingly harmless adventure that hadn't yet found them.

Emmet shrugged and slid his arm snug around Lucy's waist. "I dunno, I barely even think about them!"

It took a small bite of effort for Lucy not to roll her eyes at her boyfriend's oblivious, optimistic, if not somewhat adorable nature that she had fallen so hard for.

Leaving her for a moment, Emmet grabbed her bag and slung it into the trunk before closing the door with a hard snap. "Well, we're all packed!"

"Come back and visit, ya hear?" Robert grabbed Emmet into a massive hug. "Unless we've gotta come out there for a wedding instead, that could always work." His comment gently rubbed and ignited a small fire in Emmet and Lucy's faces as they looked to the ground. However, not one of them didn't wear a hopeful smile.

"Dad..." Emmet stole a fast glance at Lucy, both of their smiles mischievous yet childlike.

Lucy joined in the hug. "It was great meeting you, Robert."

Amanda walked up, finally letting her headphones fall from her head down to her neck as she gave Lucy a gentle hug. "Don't let my brother hog you too much, I want to see you again sometime."

"I will, Emmet wants us both to go to the mall at some point." Lucy didn't even try to keep a chipper voice, seeing that Amanda was equally disgusted at the prospect.

Walking over to her brother to give him a hug, Amanda shook her head. "Bro, seriously, no mall. Roller-rink, bowling alley, anything but shopping."

Emmet chuckled. "Ok, ok. Love you, sis!"

"Love you."

"My turn!" Ella cried, running to her son and scooping him into a large, somewhat embarrassing hug. "Love you, hon, make sure to call me when you get back!"

Emmet nodded from under his mother's tight embrace. He made sure to shoot his giggling girlfriend a look, and she quieted her chuckles. "Love you too!"

Pulling away, Ella turned mascara-smudged, watering eyes onto Lucy, a concoction of warm, motherly love and deep respect. "Lucy, take care of my boy, that's an order." There was a joking nature to her voice, but a plead lay underneath it. Her inflection reminded Lucy of a child asking her best friend to take care of a favorite toy; solid trust that could be broken with a gentle tap.

Grinning, Lucy watched her boyfriend get into the car for a few moments. She would keep that promise her whole life. "I will. Thanks, Ella."

They stood for a split second before Ella wrapped Lucy in a warm, quick hug. "You're a good girl, Lucy," she whispered.

The words hit, and Lucy's lips softened into a smile. She approved of her. Emmet's mother, the one woman who loved Emmet as much as Lucy did, accepted her, and gave her the permission to love him. "Thanks."

Lucy pulled back and walked to the car, where Emmet grabbed her hands to help her in. "That's my boy!" Ella shouted, waving from the driveway. "You kids have a safe trip!"

Emmet shut the door behind him. "We will, mom. Love you guys!"

They all exchanged farewells, well-wishes, and goodbyes until the car was just a speck in the sunrise from the family's view.

Lucy collapsed back in the searing-hot passenger seat. Her eyes fluttered closed as she sighed, the country sun still glinting through the window and playing with her vision like a toy.

She looked over to Emmet as he began talking about all the fun they would have when they got home, and she smiled, even as he ignored all the dangers, the trials, and the trouble that awaited them.

That was what she loved.

When she was sad, he cheered her up. When she was happy, he was right there with her. When she was bored, her would either sit with her, or travel to the ends of the earth the entertain her. He was her constant, her steady wave that always rushed in against the water, no matter what the world had in store. As he silenced his phone to continue talking to her, she leaned over to give him a kiss.

He took her hand in his, the sensation warm and familiar. "I love you."

She rested her head on his shoulder and breathed in the country air that now traveled with him. "I love you, too."

Wherever they went, he was hers.

#

Sixteen hours, eight gas station stops, one hotel room break, and six nervous breakdowns later, Emmet and Lucy arrived at the edges of Apocalypseburg, where Unikitty was waiting for them in a rundown, threesome apartment.

"Never…again…Lucy…" Emmet wobbled and wavered as he walked, only avoiding the walls by leaning heavily on her shoulder. "Too…tired…"

Lucy nodded in agreement. The ride home from a vacation was like driving to the dentist, whereas driving to vacation was like coming home from the dentist, safe in the knowledge that no one must face the metal tools until next year. "Come on, I'm tired. Maybe Unikitty's already asleep."

Lucy kicked their door open and led Emmet in. There, on the couch, lay Unikitty, sound asleep and snoring like a newborn kitten. Lucy smiled softly. "Y'know, as annoying as she can be, she's an ok roommate."

After a pause with no response, Lucy turned to her boyfriend as he walked across the room, collapsed next to Unikitty and mumbled out, "Night, Lucy. Love." He fell asleep and joined Unikitty's snoring fest.

Lucy laughed.

_If you can't beat 'em, join 'em._

Dropping her bags to the ground, Lucy walked over to her boyfriend and best friend. She curled underneath Emmet's arm, and he reflexively tightened around her before she fell fast asleep.

After all, admitting Unikitty was right could wait until morning.


	12. Reality

**A/N: THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! Decided against the American revolution AU…for now. This one is…I don't even know XD. LUCY'S POV. This has a Rex scene in it, and it's tempting me to write more involving him, it's just such an interesting thing to work with! ENJOY!**

* * *

"Ugh, Emmet, my head wants to make friends with an ice cube." I leaned into my boyfriend's solid arms as my sweltering body begged for wind, water, anything with a temperature below twenty-degrees.

"I know, Lucy." He bit his bottom lip, and I gave him a swift nudge. He knew why. Look, it's not like I meant to get sick. And sure, Emmet had told me to wash my hands after we and the gang played in the rain, but I…didn't want to. It wasn't my fault.

He shook his head and helped me onto the couch, which I collapsed onto. "I'm not saying anything, Lucy. Promise."

"Good."

A few beats of silence passed us over.

"Just please never do this again, I hate seeing you sick!" He said the whole sentence in one breath.

My snarky smirk fell pathetically into a loving smile. I watched in some mix of amusement, love, and admiration as he pulled several blankets over me, flipped on the TV, set some tissues on the table, and pressed a sweet kiss on my forehead. "Thanks," I mumbled under my breath.

He knelt next to me, and the cool sensation of his hand against my cheek felt like water against sunburned skin; it was immeasurable relief. "Just get better, ok, Lucy?"

I nodded, gravity and my fever working together to shut down my consciousness. "Love you, Ems." I wondered if he understood my bubbled murmur, laced with drowsy incoherence, but his shy, endearing response answered my pointless fears.

"I love you a lot more, Lucy." He pressed a soft kiss to my lips, and sleep cradled me before he even had the chance to pull away.

#

I don't know when I woke up or why, but I regretted my unconscious action the moment I realized it had happened. The couch, my body, the blankets, my hair, everything on me and around me was choked with sweat and searing. It was like I had been in a hot tub for far too long, or I had been running for five hours in the middle of July under a nonday sun. My head sweltered and begged for mercy, but my throat, stuffed with glass and sandpaper, didn't care enough to voice any concerns. If misery loves company, then I needed the entire fire brigade by my side. With hoses. And pools. Pools of icy, near-frozen water.

I had hardly adjusted to my shadowed, hazy vision when company I had not asked for voiced its presence.

"Long time no see, huh, Lucy?"

That voice. I knew that voice. Its coarse, uncaring, sarcastic, and hypnotic tone could belong to no other. The inflection laced a chain around my neck, and I could no longer fight the guilt that trapped my words. The hint of amusement in his words, the way he began a sentence, every poetic enunciation and syllabic stress reminded me of a metal spoon rubbing against teeth. I hated that voice.

I flipped over, and my sweat-damped hair fell over my forehead in front of the man I despised to love, and loved to despise. He killed me every day, yet I couldn't live without him.

Rex smiled down at me. "I know, I know, you're not that happy to see me."

"Shut up," I replied, shortly. I curled deeper under my blanket and soaked what inches remained untouched from my own body heat. I wondered if this was what heatstroke felt like.

He sat down, a laugh crossing his face. "You're angry."

"Obviously." Talking exhausted me. I inhaled a long breath and kicked off my light, lavender sheet in hopes the outside air could cool me down.

Rex shrugged. His cocky attitude subsided, and my state of mind forced me to listen to what he had to say, no matter how contradictory or upsetting. "I can't blame you, I was kind of a jerk."

I agreed wholeheartedly with that statement. It was vindication, in a way, to hear his admittance. I piled on the evidence, "You tried to kidnap my boyfriend."

Waving his hands up in the air, Rex lost some of his new-found humbleness. "Hey, you're forgetting that he and I are the same."

My already flushed cheeks heated up. "No. You're not Emmet, and you never will be. Emmet is sweet, caring, adorable, loving…" My words began to mumble near the end, my face started falling into the pillow, and my eyelids dropped, but I tried to continue listing, "…innocent, nice, funny…"

A laugh came from his direction, and I tried to smirk. "You're droning off, babe."

"_Don't _call me that." I finally picked myself up at his words, sat up, and slouched against the pillow. I could see him better this way, and my head cleared some of the jungle that was my vague vision away.

"Is Emmet allowed to call you that?" I bit back a smile at his words. He was jealous. The lightest stress he put on Emmet's name, the way he raised the pitch at the end of his question, even how he raised his eyebrow – he was jealous.

"He doesn't," I replied.

A brief flash of humor passed Rex's face, but it was gone so quickly I had no time to react. "Would you let him?"

"Does it matter?"

He didn't respond, and I assumed I won.

Emmet never called me babe because it wasn't him. That was Batman. Emmet was too sweet to do something like that. It wasn't a matter of if I would let him, or even if he had it in him, he simply didn't want to. I liked it that way. If he called me that, that would remind me of Batman and my whole unpleasant past, along with my choices and emotions, and I wasn't ready to handle that yet.

Rex interrupted my introspection. "I never forgot you, Lucy. I never stopped loving you. I still love you." There was something deeply tragic about his longing for me. He was Emmet. That was the problem. When I closed my eyes, I could pretend he was Rex, the snarky spaceship guy who really ticked me off. But, when daylight came, I had to sacrifice my fantasies and comfortable lies for the truth. No matter the reasons, Emmet had grown up, and _this _was what he had become. My Emmet turned into this.

Not only that, he was _capable _of turning into this. All those years I had known, loved, cried, laughed with him, he had harbored the terrible ability to morph into Rex under the right conditions. The prince whose real identity was a frog.

"I'm sorry." I had nothing else to say.

A light laugh pricked my ears. "Me too. Believe me, when I first saw you after all those years, I thought for sure that I would lose my mind. Seeing Emmet hug you like that…it wasn't easy for me." I hated that crack in his voice.

My head had slipped, I realized, from it's almost-straight position back down to the bottom of the pillow. Sleep shushed and rocked me as Rex looked me up and down with an unquenchable yearning in his eyes.

"You're beautiful, Lucy." Rex's words were soft, like a lullaby, but the fever had me in its grip, and I wasn't coming back for a long time.

I started to lose interest, or, rather, my consciousness. I heard the creak of the metal chair, but he wasn't standing up, for when I worked to open my eyes, I saw him kneeling next to me. I saw Emmet. They really did look similar. His innocence, his child-like curiosity that I had fallen so hard for remained etched in his face. It haunted me, sometimes, to see that it never left Rex.

His voice, soft and choked with hills of emotion in his throat, rocked me closer to sweet sleep. I curled under his warm, intimate touch on my shoulder. "I'll always love you, Lucy." His breath, hot against my cheek, nearly drove me to reach forward and grab him, but he leaned forward to press a sweet, soft kiss on my lips before I had the chance. I kissed back, not that I had to, he drew me in with passionate, hypnotic power on his own.

His lips left mine, though I ached for more. "Foreva."

"Mhmph…" Light replaced his shadow, and I mumbled for his return, but my words hit empty air.

I didn't have much time to wonder where he had gone, for the click of the door shut out my consciousness.

#

I wasn't sure how long I had been out, but my next moment was surrounded by glitter, sparkles, and the stuff Unikitty's dreams are made of.

I pushed myself up against the metallic, futuristic, neon-pink floor. It was so shiny it felt slippery, the tiles clicked together like a keyboard. My temperature seemed to have fallen, for I no longer felt as though I was walking into the savannah. However, the rose dome of a spaceship I sat in didn't seem much better.

"Good, you're awake!" A soprano, melodious voice tinted the air like a paintbrush, and a body followed it not a moment later. She waved wildly. "Hi! I'm Jewel Twist!"

My mouth was left hanging open at the woman. Her hair struggled to touch her shoulders, and it curled and intertwined around itself in fuchsia, cobalt, and shamrock locks like vines from jungle trees. I wasn't one to care for looks. I never was. But whatever stylist she was seeing, I needed her number.

Her freckles delicately graced her cheeks, and they surrounded her bubblegum lips, smiling slightly as she eyes the ground in shy embarrassment. Her figure hopped out of a model magazine, the amethyst tea party dress toyed with my hidden feminine tastes, and it hugged her curves in a way that sparked my jealousy I knew not of.

"Where am I?" I asked, pushing myself up. I took a moment to appreciate the light, carefree sensation of _not _having a fever.

She smiled in a way that reminded me of Unikitty. "Silly! You should recognize it, you picked it out?"

My eyes must have displayed my confusion.

Her giggle reached pitches I didn't know existed. "Aw, cutie, look closer!" The hurl in my stomach whispered that I should not trust this woman. She took a dainty step towards me, bringing her daffodil perfume with her. The glint in her eyes looked like the opposite of bloodshot. Dangerously dainty. Her smile shone at me. "Doesn't this remind you of something?"

Her perfume was starting to close my throat – or maybe it was the tint of her voice creeping into my subconscious. I stepped back. "I don't know who you are, or where I am."

"It's so cute how oblivious you are!" She poked my elbow, and the small flick felt like she punched me. "Come on, think _really _hard!"

I rolled my eyes. "I give up."

Pouting, she kicked my shin. I assumed she meant it lightly – or maybe she didn't. "Honey, I'm you!"

The words slapped me across the face.

She stole my moment of confusion and explained. "Y'know. Jewel – **_J_**oyful, **_E_**asygoing, **_W_**onderful, **_E_**xtraordinary **_L_**ucy!"

"What are you talking about? Is this a joke?" It obviously was. It had to be. Batman was pulling a trick on me, or maybe Unikitty. I forced my eyes around the room in a harsh roll. "Of course it is. Look, I don't–"

She grabbed my wrist and swung me around, and I heard something crack as she held me with an iron grip. "Think about it, sweetheart. We went to go save Emmet, but we didn't make it. This is what happens when we spend five years alone." Her words hissed in my trembling frame. "Not pretty, is it?"

"No, no, get away from me!" My wrist cracked and snapped against my back.

He next second I blinked, she bashed my head against the metal wall. "You did this to me…" she whistled my ear. "I'm this way because of _you._"

I jolted against her grip. My wrist broke free, but my brief freedom was met with harsh punishment. A blade, spiked and jagged, tickled my neck as her laughter echoed off the walls. "Do you know how good we had it?" Her words backed me against the wall. "We had everything, and you ruined it! If you had stopped him from getting kidnapped, if you had waited for him to get back, if you had done _one _thing different, I wouldn't be this way!"

My own voice ricocheted at me. Not a thing was different. Those freckles, they were mine. The pink and blue of her locks, they were mine. The mannerism, the tilt of her head, the confident way she held her shoulders, it was all me.

I stared at the blade. "Get…I'm…sorry…"

The blade licked my skin. Her grin was wicked, sick, and vile. "Too late for sorry, Lucy."

I shut my eyes. This was it. This was how I was going out.

Before the edge sliced through my skin, everything faded to black, and Jewel disappeared.

#

"Lucy?" The voice was sweet and sincere. High and lovable. Unikitty.

My overbearing, engulfing, scorching air had returned. My forehead was pressed with sweat, my throat felt as though it was filled of nails, and my head weighed fifteen pounds of pain that kicked at my head. If pain was made to tell the body something was wrong, death must have been at my door with gifts.

My eyes opened on their own accord, and Unikitty's cute, familiar face smiled down at me. "We're taking you to the hospital, ok?"

"Mphhmph…" I tried to voice my fear, the panic of whatever illness I had, but the misery conquered my fear, and I nodded.

Admitting defeat seemed to be of great importance of her, for she gave a large sigh. "Great. Ok, Emmet, are the paramedics here yet?"

Hospital was one thing, and not of too much concern, but an ambulance meant business. It meant I was dying. I reached forward to grab Unikitty as some sort of protest. Why was I going to the hospital? I knew I had a fever, and I knew it was bad, but the hospital is where people go when they're dying. I'm not dying. People who feel like they're going to die feel different than how I feel.

Emmet appeared in my dizzy, swished line of vision, and I stretched for him immediately. My sight flipped over, then, and my boyfriend hung above me, upside down and looking heartbroken. My head slid on something soft before leveling off at the floor. "Emmem…" I tried to mumble his name.

My vision straightened out as his strong, soothing arms wrapped around me. I leaned into his chest. It was cool, like an ice cube. I didn't want to let go of him.

"Emmet, they're outside, I'm gonna go get them." Unikitty's voice sounded far away.

The muffled voice of my boyfriend responded. "Ok, I'm staying here with her. She's burning up, Unikitty…I'm scared."

I didn't like the sound of Emmet being scared. I grasped my arms around his neck and tried to hug him, but he just shushed me instead. That was silly, I wasn't even talking. "Emms…" I wanted him to kiss me. I knew I was sick, but I wanted to feel his lips against mine. It would make me feel better.

"Shh, Lucy, it's ok. You've got a fever, and it's a little high. The doctor will help you, ok?" He spoke like a parent speaks to a child with an injury.

Nodding, I allowed my head to drop into the seemingly bottomless pit of his embrace. This was nice.

The next few minutes went by in a blur. Men, shouting, loud, harsh-sounding men walked in. Their boots sounded like tractors. I gripped Emmet tighter, but there were more of them, and my arms felt like they had lost half of their muscles, and I was helpless to fight them as they rested me on a stretcher. Emmet didn't let go of my hand. Unikitty's voice was there, she was asking questions.

Someone put a damp cloth on my forehead, and only then did I realize I had been wearing one the whole time, it had just gotten so warm that I hadn't felt it.

I tugged with what strength I had on Emmet's arm. "Where…go." He would understand what I meant. He always did. He always knew what I meant.

"To the hospital, Lucy." I was moving. Light gleamed through my eyelids on instant, and wind rustled against my skin. It felt like I had just jumped into a pool in hundred-degree weather. I smiled slightly and brought Emmet's hand closer to my embrace. "I'm coming on the ambulance, I won't leave you."

I nodded. I didn't want him to ever leave me.

My bed bumped over something, and white walls replaced the blue atmosphere. It was hot again, and I grabbed for Emmet, but he was distracted, talking to a paramedic. Was it a woman? My vision flipped over itself at least a dozen times.

"It's gonna be ok, Lucy," Emmet said upon turning to me. Tears laced his eyes, and even in my state, something in my heart jumped. I tried to reach for him, but that old friend grabbed me by the mouth, and everything blacked out.

#

I went in and out of it after that. One minute I saw Emmet crying at my bedside, the next I saw Unikitty asleep at my feet. Batman even visited, though I don't know what he said. Emmet came back, he looked happier.

I fell back asleep, then, and I must have been out of it for a long time, because when I woke up, the hospital was quiet and basking in the dead of night. The first thing I noticed was my head no longer felt as though someone had lit fire to it. The second was my stomach needed food, and it needed it now.

My head had finally corrected my vision, and I saw things in the right places and at the right distance, including my boyfriend, who sat across next to me in a metal chair, fast asleep. He was adorable. "Ems," I whispered, nudging him.

"The wedding's in two months!" He woke with a start and grabbed onto the metal bars. His eyes found mine, and by his smile alone, you would have thought he had just won the lottery. "Lucy! You're awake!"

He burst up from the seat, and in the next moment, he had his arms wrapped tightly around me. I melted into his arms, and his head tilted, as if he was checking that I wasn't falling asleep again. His arms were warm around my body. I felt as though I was made to be held by him.

"I've been so worried about you." His words hit the air like he was mad, furious and fuming at how far my illness had gone, but I heard them in a soothing, protective capacity. He cared, and that was something I couldn't buy in a boyfriend.

"I'm ok, I promise." I drew back slightly, but he didn't break contact, instead rubbing and resting his hands on my legs. "Where's Unikitty?"

"She went home, probably passed out on the couch. How do you feel?" I could tell he didn't really want to talk about Unikitty, or any topic besides me. Concern, left over from anxious worry, hung over in his bloodshot eyes that mined into me for information. "Are you still hot?"

I shook my head. "No, I think my fever broke. I have to ask you few questions, though." Memories, odd, strange memories, trickled from a faucet in my mind, but none of them made sense.

"Sure, what is it?"

I shifted in my bed. "Well, I know that I was pretty hazy when you brought me to the couch, but what happened after that? I just remember weird dreams and visits, but I don't know which were real." A sharp, anxious spike pricked up from my stomach as different conclusions, causes, and effects swelled inside my mind.

Emmet nodded. "Sure, well, you fell asleep. I came in about an hour after that, Unikitty and I were getting worried since you don't usually nap. When I went in, you woke up almost as soon as I walked by you. Since you were awake I tried talking to you, and you tried talking back." Emmet started laughing a little, as one does when they're recalling something that remains funny long after it occurs. He grabbed my hand across my lap. "You were really out of it, it sounded like you were arguing with me. When you started to fall back asleep, I kissed you and left."

The first part of my mystery was solved. I nodded. "Ok, keep going."

"Well, I guess you were asleep for a long time after that. There was a huge storm too, but I guess it didn't wake you up. Then, I came–"

"Wait, wait a minute." I broke into my boyfriend's story. "There as a storm? How bad was it?"

Emmet shuddered. "It was nuts. Unikitty was terrified, so we watched a scary movie upstairs to get our minds off it. It's that one we watched last week, _Cute Terror, _with the really mean popstar."

"So _that's _what that was." As Emmet told his end of the story, pieces of my dreams flowed back in drops and gushes, without warning and in blurry images. "What happened after that?"

"I guess you were asleep that whole time," Emmet explained. "Unikitty was really worried, your temperature was through the roof, so we called the paramedics." He paused, apparently my look of intense confusion and realization caused some concern. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." None of it was even real. Rex never kissed me, and I never met an evil version of myself. It turned my view up towards my boyfriend, whose sweet, adorable smile gently pulled each of my emotions back to reality. "I'm ok, I just had some really weird dreams." Yes, 'weird' was a perfect word.

Emmet sighed. "Good, I was worried." His tone fell from a thousand feet, and the tilt of his head towards our connected hands appeared like someone had put a curse of infinite fear over him. "Don't ever do that again. You scared me."

I leaned forward and hugged him as tight as my arms could hold him. "I won't, as long as you promise me one thing."

His head buried in the crook of my neck as he nodded. "Yeah?"

I sighed, and murmured my words as his lips covered mine. "Never, _ever _call me babe."

As I let him gently press me against the pillow, I felt him smile in the kiss. "I promise."


	13. A Rose By Any Other Name (PLZ READ AN)

**A/N: YAY YOU LIKED THE LAST ONE! You guys are the best, your reviews mean so much to me! ****_This one is kind of an alternate ending to LM2, if Rex and knocked Emmet unconscious, and before he woke up, he and Lucy had talked._**** OH I also have a poll on my profile page. THX! LAST THING: This contains a tiny bit of dialogue from the movie, which I do not own. **

"Who are you calling 'so called'?"

The melodious, teasing voice halted Rex's hand, and he swiveled to face the love of his life.

Lucy started walking towards Emmet, and vivid, colorful bricks followed her path, and before long, Rex was surrounded by a rainbow of vibrant tints.

He shot a rapid look towards Emmet, who smiled at Lucy and started to pick himself up, hopeful, grateful energy radiating in his smile. Rex wasn't about to let them get away with everything, get past all the hurt they had caused him just like that. Quickly, and just before Lucy got to him, Rex gave Emmet a swift punch to the head and knocked him out cold.

"Emmet!" Lucy shouted. Her smile fell from a thousand feet as she rushed to her boyfriend. Rex's revenge-filled moment weakened, though he continued to shout at himself to run, to get away while he had the chance, all while Lucy innocently tugged him by a leash.

Rex backed away, glaring at Lucy as she collapsed at Emmet's side. Her expression nearly moved him, but that rough edge he had worked so hard to grow caught him once again. "So, it's been a while, huh, Lucy?" His lip twitched as he battled between a hard glare and a faltering smile.

"What did you do to him?" Lucy's voice cracked and itched in her throat like sandpaper lit on fire, and she bent by Emmet's side, running her hands over his ruffled hair, as he lay, unconscious and unmoving. She winced. He had tried to change for her, and look what happened! She nearly killed him.

Rex smirked and watched as Lucy tended to Emmet. "He's fine."

The response she gave nipped harshly at his heels. "That's not an answer!"

Lucy took Emmet's hand in her own. He was breathing, and her shoulders fell, releasing pain and tension with them. How long had she held her shoulders in a tense, terrible grip? She ignored her own pain, realigned her frazzled vision, and brushed a lock of her boyfriend's hair out of his face. "Wake up, Ems," she murmured under dense breath.

A solid, warm hand pressed to her shoulder. "Lucy, come with me."

Momentarily, she forgot of her boyfriend, and turned to Rex with blazing eyes. "_What?"_

He bent down. His gaze was deep, mysterious and steady, and it mined into her own, not digging up her own secrets, but pouring his into her, secrets that she didn't want. Her head hung limp, and he spoke softly, "Look close. Who do you see?"

"No." She would not acknowledge what she had done.

"You know." There as some realization in his voice, like he had waited, or hoped, that she would already hold his secret in her heart.

She owed him something, didn't she? If she had done this to him, if she had made him this way, if she was part of the reason for his anguish, then she owed him some type of apology, some She met his eyes, already finding his gaze fixated on her. "I wish I didn't. Rex, I'm sorry, but–"

This time, he was the one to look away. Hopeless regret rang out in his voice, "I know, it's you and Emmet now, right?" He sounded bitter.

Despite the situation, Lucy nearly smiled, looking down towards her innocent, sweet boyfriend as he lay on the ground, nearly cuddled around her hand. "I love him."

Betrayal replaced bitter sorrow, and she winced at his gaze burning a hole in the back of her head. "You loved me, too, did-dn't you?" The accusation traveled through his old voice, his former life. His tone raised as it cracked, and for a moment, she imaged Emmet standing behind her, warm tears spilling down his face as he pleaded forgiveness.

She sighed and turned to him once more, defeat crossing her face. "Of course." She still did.

A distressed laugh cracked through his words. "I never told Emmet this, but part of the reason I changed…it was because of you. This was what you wanted. Ah, and I see that look in your eyes. I remember that, y'know. You always make that face when you're about to lie." How was it he still knew her so well? She berated herself for the question. If Rex really had existed as Emmet, then it made sense if he remembered every detail about her, every whip of her hair and tilt of her voice. Emmet wouldn't forget those things.

She hated him, in a way. She hated Rex. He tripped her over with guilt, he reminded her of what she could have – what she had done. She had tortured her boyfriend into morphing into a monster, and for Rex, her mistake was his life, and she could never forgive herself for that. The one person she had promised to protect, to love, to heal; she had stolen his life away.

She tried to speak, "Rex–"

He broke in, his voice choked with emotion and tears, as he stood and backed away from her. "Call me Emmet. Please?"

Her head tilted down towards her boyfriend, and she brushed another lock out of his face. He shifted, curled around her arm, and breathed as if he was sleeping. She turned back towards Rex. "Fine. Emmet…I guess, yes, you're what I wanted. But…not anymore." She gripped Emmet's hand. "Not anymore, and…I'm sorry."

"Figures, huh?" He chuckled, and she caught him rub his eyes against his wrist, the same way Emmet did. His fabricated smile faltered. "I was never that lucky of a guy, it figures that I would have to lose you at some point."

She winced. "Emmet, don't say that, please."

"Just tell me one thing, Lucy." He kneeled, but in Lucy's eyes, he collapsed under pressure of five years. His hand moved to her neck, cradling he back of her head with a solid, confident yet intimate touch. "Tell me you still love me."

"Emmet, I…" How was she to profess her love to one, while the other lay unconscious next to her? They were one and the same, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, none of it mattered! Was Rex, _Emmet,_ a different person, or was he still that naïve, innocent, kind man she had fallen for all those years ago?

She sighed. "Of course I still love you."

He smiled, and his hand drew her in like she was pure air. "Thanks, Lucy. That's all I ever needed."

She couldn't pull away as he took the last step, lured her in, and kissed her.

If there had ever existed any flake of doubt in her mind that Rex had lived his life as Emmet in the past, the kiss dissolved it. He kissed her just the same; delicately, warmly, yet in such a way that she was helpless to his touch.

Breath off to other lands, she pulled back, happy to see that she had the same effect on him that she always had. "Not a fan of the stubble, Ems." She ran her hand over his jaw, smiling slightly.

He laughed. "I had a feeling you'd feel that way."

Longing desperation in his touch, he grabbed her by the shoulders and crashed his lips hard into hers. There was some tint of anxiety, some misery in his grip, but she ignored it, pressing herself deeper into his embrace. He needed her, and there was some comfort in that fact.

"Lucy," he spoke into her mouth, and his grab around her tightened as the kiss deepened. "I love you. Be good to Emmet, alright? We love you a lot."

Lucy didn't care what his reasons were for his odd, out-of-place profession. "I'll always love you, Emmet."

She got no response, and the man before her dissolved from her grasp.

"Emmet?"

She opened her eyes, and the space in front of her, void of life, mocked her last few minutes.

The timeline. It must have been the timeline. If she had come back for Emmet…

"Ah, Lucy, my head hurts." A groan sounded from beside her, followed by wamr, weak hands pressed on her legs. "What happened?

Lucy turned, broken out of her trance. "Emmet…" Light laughter penetrated her, pure, giddy happiness that resonated though her voice. "Emmet, you're ok!"

He had not a moment to collect himself as she collapsed atop him, pressed his arms to the side and kissed him harder than he knew she could. As she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, deepening the kiss, he had to marvel at how happy Lucy was that he was awake. He was beginning to see some benefit in this whole adventure.

"Lucy…" he spoke between her breaths as she continued kissing him. "Are…you ok?"

"Shut up," she replied. Her lips slowed, and focused on holding onto him. What she could not tell him through words, she would explain with silent, delicate eloquence. She told him how mad at him she was for trying to change, and that she would kill him if he ever tried it again. She apologized, as he wrapped his arms around her back, for everything she had ever done to him. She whispered sweet words to him, and he agreed, choosing her over oxygen. She moaned that she loved him, and he promised he would always be there for her to tell him that.

She had hurt him once, she wouldn't do it again. This time, she would be better, for his sake.

When anatomy tapped her on the shoulder, coughed, and reminded her that she needed to breathe at some point, she drew back, panting slightly. "You got all that?"

Dazed and hypnotized, he replied, "Uh-huh."

"So, I don't have to tell you that I'm sorry?" She kissed him again, silencing any type of reaction he could have had. "I don't have to tell you to never change? I don't have to tell you I love you?"

Emmet smiled. She had missed that. "Nope, I got it all. And I'm sorry too."

She nodded, reaching down to grab his hand. "Special best friends?"

"Foreva."


	14. Rebels (PLZ READ AN SRY)

**A/N: First off, HAPPY EASTER! I know I haven't updated in…a while…heh, sorry! Hopefully this one makes up for it :).****_ DISCLAIMER PLEASE READ_****: Okay, no one hate me, but this one is…*deep breath* an AU, an American Revolution Alternate Universe fanfic. I'm sorry. Tell me if you hate it…but please be gentle. Don't hate me XD. There's also a battle scene. This contains parts that are similar/identical to in LM1, which I obviously don't own. THANKS!**

* * *

"Emmet!"

Emmet's head perked up at the bark of his commanding officer, and he straightened his spine as far as it could go without breaking his neck. "Yes, sir?"

His commanding officer, Michael, glared at the peppy soldier. "Go survey the area, be back quick." The very inflection finished the command, and Emmet didn't want to think about the implied 'or else' component of the instructions. Besides, his back was about to snap in half if he stayed like this much longer, his spine was practically touching his ribs.

"Yes, sir!" Emmet responded, the object of a perfect British soldier. He marched all the way out of the camp until his boots left the grainy wood, sprinkled with coastal sand for mossy, muddy grass, when he could let his muscles relax.

The colonies were beautiful. Sure, he loved England, it was his home, and he never grew tired of the quiet cottages, spewing smoke from the top so high you could see it from three streets over. The rows of neat grass cut precisely off from the road gave him a sense of order, that everything was in place, as it should be.

However, there was something about the untamed colonies. Sharpe blades of grass prodded and poked, growing wherever they please with no care for manmade structures or rules. He could pick a random tree in front of him, and it was bound to be taller than the trees in the schoolyard back home, those that he had previously dubbed The Tallest Living Things Besides My Cousin John. Emmet wasn't very good with naming things.

His boots sloshed and sank as he walked through the wet grasslands, fresh from the day's rain and nature's playdates. Surveying wasn't really a job for him, there wasn't anything to survey, and it was more like a calming nature walk.

Stopping at an oak tree that soared up into the soaked, black clouds, he put down his gun and ran his hand over the bark to feel the grooves, edges, sharp juts and cracks in the wood. The trees in England were nothing like this one; this tree was rough and wild, and it didn't follow any definitions of how a tree should grow.

His eyes had hardly looked the life over when they caught sight of a stark, contrasted figure collapsed beside a rock, some trees off.

He looked to the left of his tree, trying to spot the form again as his hands went, on instinct, for his gun. Was it one of his fellow soldiers? Maybe Michael had sent out multiple men to survey the land. But…none of his friends had hair tied up in a ponytail on the side of their head.

Walking past his tree, his boots matting the dewy grass down to the dirt with each step, he tried to get another glimpse of the person. "Uh, hello?" He called out, despite it breaking every protocol in the book.

Only after getting onto a boulder did he see the woman.

His unusual, uncharacteristic pessimism forced a peep out. _She's not real,_ it told him. _You're mad. _No fictional, real, evil, good, sane, or crazy person he had ever met had locks of coal, sprinkled against two blades of fuchsia and lapis. The possibility of madness, or perhaps hallucination, danced through his mind, but he dashed them away when he rubbed his eyes, checked again, and her rough, willowy, darkened figure remained.

Besides her hair, she was still a question of nature. He had never seen a woman so…_her. _Character filled her form, and like a well written protagonist, he seemed to know her likes and dislikes just by looking at her – but still longed to clear the fog of mystery that circled her.

After his love spell, attention slapped him across the face and pointed him to her leg, the leg that lay wounded and bleeding on the grass as she crudely tried to mend it.

Now, whether Emmet was very kind or very stupid, we'll never know. Either way, he made up his mind within the second, and slowly walked over to her.

"Uh, hi!" He greeted, waving his hand.

Her head shot up, and the second after he blinked, he was on the ground, his face pressed into the mud and the butt of his gun jabbed into his back.

Well, he never was good with first impressions.

"Who are you?" She demanded with a curt, coarse voice, stabbing the butt of his gun farther into his spine and keeping a firm, hard boot on his back. He could feel the mud and rain leaking through his uniform onto his skin.

He raised his hands up as much as he could against the ground. Surrendering was not an issue for Emmet, he would gladly be an alive prisoner than a dead soldier. "Uh, Emmet?" He ended it as a question, as if she would retort the fact. "I'm a British soldier."

While he couldn't see her, he could just picture her rolling her eyes at him. "I got that."

Her lips parted to question him again, but her leg interrupted, buckled beneath her, and only by reaching out to the rock beside her did she escape falling to the ground.

"Are you ok?" His quiet question sliced against her will. If he arched his neck, he could catch a fleeting glimpse of her, and her leg that hardly provided any support. She appeared to suffer a bullet wound, right below her knee, and the ripped cloth begged for mercy from the downpour of blood. "I can help you with your leg."

She shook her head as if he had offered to hold her gun, which she now leaned on like a cane. Her words, while she forced them through a glare, hit the air like a gasp against pain. "No way."

"You're hurt."

"I know."

Another snap of pain rushed through her veins, and she nearly collapsed, if it had not been for the gun. "I'm…fine…" Her lie, forced between labored breathes, sent a cruel twist in her stomach. She hated feeling weak. Yet, the idea of finally alleviating the constant drum of numb shock through her leg felt like imagining the warm beach during the deep freeze of January.

"Please, let me help you?" He begged, shifting once more to look at her face. He hadn't noticed before, but she had the prettiest freckles.

She paused. Her eyes roamed his anxious expression, and she argued against herself; if she held the gun, there was no chance of his escape, and she would remain in the upper hand.

"Fine," she replied, shortly. She paused a moment more, raised the gun off his back, and let her back slide against the cool, damp rock, the rain tickling her skin through her thin clothes. She held fast to the gun as he looked to her leg. "Just fix it."

He nodded, pulling off his backpack and taking out a variety of bandages and first-aid materials. She stuck her leg out, now grasping the gun as if she were in labor to force the pain away.

"How did you get hurt?" He asked, after a beat of silence. There weren't women soldiers, so how could she have gotten mixed up in the heat of battle? The thought of her getting shot sent a cringe down his spine, though he hardly knew her, the thought of her, injured, pained him.

She did not respond, lost in watching him bandage her. He was neat, or, would have been, if she hadn't slammed him into the mud. She probably didn't look much better. "I'm a nurse. I was walking outside and got caught by sniper fire."

"When?"

"A few hours ago. It's just a graze."

He found himself terribly angry with his friends; had they meant to shoot her? She was a woman, a nurse, she wasn't even a soldier! How could they do that? "I'm sorry," he mumbled under hot breath and flushed cheeks.

It was sweet, she noted, how he apologized for a crime he hadn't committed. "Thanks."

They sat in silence, for a few moments, as he wrapped tight cloth around her wound in a rhythmic motion. She found him rather cute, given the circumstances. It was strange; out here, in the cover of fog, she could forget about her Colonel boyfriend who obviously did not care much for her, seeing as how he stole glances at every nurse in the camp.

"What's your name?" He asked, looking up after tying off her bandage. She could take him anywhere, heck, she could kill him, she had the gun. There was something about her, he didn't want to leave, even for his own safety.

She looked up, in some surprise. It was not the question, even though it was certainly a fresh conversation tactic, it was the fact that he cared enough to ask. It wasn't a ploy to get her affections, it wasn't a plot to get information out of her, he was just being kind, it seemed. She had not been on the receiving end of a male's kindness in years.

"Wyldstyle," she replied.

He cocked his head. "Is that, like, a code name?"

"No."

"Wait, so that's your real name?"

"Yes."

"Like, your parents named you Wyldstyle?"

"New topic."

They stared at each other for a few seconds of silence before simultaneously relenting to giggle.

She smiled softly. How was it that she could laugh and smile around this man, supposedly her worn enemy, but had to step away for a breath of air when she was around her own boyfriend?

"Well, I should go." Her stomach twisted at the thought of leaving him. She would never see him again, obviously, they weren't even supposed to know each other. More than that, he would probably get killed on the battle field by one of her friends. The thought, while conventional and sensible, sent another bullet through her heart. The image of him shot and killed on a battle field, smoke curling around him, burned in her mind.

He looked down. "Oh, uh…yeah. Can you stand?"

Again, Wyldstyle rolled her eyes. "Of course." With one hand on the rock and one on his shoulder, she pushed herself up. "See?" The unmistakable pride in her smile contrasted the state of her leg. "Well, uh, bye." She took one step away from him with her good leg, picked up her injured one and fell right down into Emmet's lap.

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you _sure _you can walk?"

"Be quiet."

He shook his head. "I'm helping you back to your camp." While he had meant to sound ordering and 'in-charge', his words came out like a plea, a grave beg.

The temptation, again, shouted at her like a teacher trying to knock some sense into an unruly child. She couldn't walk. Her camp was some distance away, and she would either die trying to get there or someone would kill her on the way. The British soldier had certainly proven he was at least friendly, so what was the harm?

"What if they see you?" It was a concern. If her camp saw him he'd be taken prisoner, or worse, and she couldn't – wouldn't let that happen. He didn't deserve that.

He waved off the danger, and she bit back a giggle. "Don't worry, I'll stay back and just bring you to the door."

Smirking, her voice hinted a playful, teasing air. "You do know we're on opposite sides of the war, right?" She looked him up and down, as if making her point clearer by contrasting his pristine uniform with her rough, battered clothes.

Linking her arm over his shoulder, he nodded. "Yeah, I know."

#

A full hour passed until they got to the gate of her camp. "This is it," Wyldstyle said in a hushed whisper. She untangled herself from his arms, and after getting over the initial cold of leaving him, grabbed onto a tree. "Hey, listen, thanks for helping me."

His nerves jumped around inside him as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh, no problem. It's nice to get away from camp every once in a while."

She looked up at him. The past hour had been possibly the best hour she had spent with a guy since the beginning of the war. She had hardly though of Batman, and when she had, it left her feeling empty, yearning for her new companion's kind honesty.

That stupid uniform.

Why did he have to wear _that _uniform? The war slapped her and told her that they couldn't be together, or even be friends. She should have hated him. She should have killed him.

So, why didn't she?

"Well, I should go." He broke the silence with a soft clap, and her heart caught on fire at the longing in his steady gaze.

She nodded. "Yeah."

On an impulse, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, her own face flushing like blood. After she pulled back, she giggled at the love-struck, border-line breathless stare on his face.

"Wyldstyle?" His voice cracked under the pressure of the night and her eyes, staring right at his convulsing heart. "Uh, I was wondering…I…can we…could I see you again?"

The question had two effects on her, both hitting her heart in the same instant. She was bewildered, the idea of sneaking out of camp to meet a British soldier was practically treason. Not only that, but _he _had suggested it. Her throat scratched and hollered at her for even thinking of partaking in such an event. However, her heart didn't stop beating because it wanted to, it was just too elated at handle itself.

"Emmet, I…" Wyldstyle scrambled through every inch of her mind for an excuse, a reason to tell him no, but all she could think of were reasons to run away with him. "…you're a British soldier. I'm an American rebel. How can you even want to see me again?"

He shrugged, the answer as plain as the sunset in his mind. "I like you."

It had been a long time since a guy liked her, especially when he was practically risking his life to see her. "You know what?" She was rebelling against the rebellion…and for once, that was going to be ok. "I'd like that. I'll meet you at the boulder."

Only after she agreed did his shoulders let go of their death-grip on his spine. "Great!" Emmet's cheeks lit, and he smiled from a sheepish cover. "Uh, ok, I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

She didn't know why, but she looked up, and once their eyes locked, she didn't want to look away. She saw fear in his eyes – fear of the war, the death, and losing her. He saw her fear, her insecurities, her longing. He needed her, she needed him. A void had to be filled.

She reached for his hand, and in one swift motion, caught it in her own.

Every creature in the colonies held their breath.

She wasn't sure what she had expected to feel; fear, regret, guilt, anything other than joy. However, here she was, giddy at holding his hand. Smiling up at him, she whispered, "Well, look where we are."

"Yeah…" he breathed in disbelief. He must have done something wonderful in the last few weeks to have deserved this, to have this perfect woman holding his hand. He didn't care, he never wanted to let go.

"WYLDSTYLE!" A harsh, yet feminine, light voice hollered from inside camp. "GET IN HERE!"

She looked towards the gates as if they were her parents telling her to go to her room. "I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow."

He nodded, and his lungs finally got off strike. "Ok. Goodbye, Wyldstyle."

Wincing, she held his hand tighter. "No, I don't want to do goodbyes. How about…see ya later, alligator."

He raised an eyebrow at the peculiar phrase. "Huh?"

Leaning forward, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "After a while, crocodile." With that, she opened the door and stepped inside.

He looked at the large, wooden gate until its swinging motion ceased.

Love was a strange thing.

#

"Brickowski! Where have you been?" The whip-cracking voice hit him in the lungs and stole his breath. Michael stared him down the moment he got one foot in the door, and his voice crawled inside him for protection.

Michael stepped in front of him as curious stares and whispers circulated them. "Well?" He tapped his foot, a steady drum marching towards his fate.

"I found a rebel!" He blurted. His mouth and brain acted separately, and his head could only sigh, sit down, and hope in silence that his mouth knew what it was doing. "Yeah, I was surveying the area, and there was a rebel! A woman. I tried to capture her, but she ran too fast. I don't know the area that well."

The steady, searing gaze of his commanding officer burned a hole through Emmet's head, and he was sure that he had been caught, that he was going to be thrown out of camp, imprisoned, or worse.

Finally, Michael spared the needle in Emmet's gut. "Very well. I want you to go look for her again tomorrow, and bring Jeff with you if you can't find her."

Emmet bit back the massive sigh that rested on his lips. "Thank you, sir." He saluted Michael, marched off, opened the door to his tent, and collapsed on his bunk like it was the only friend he had.

The silence shushed him closer to sleep. The only sound that pricked his ears was that of a shy frog, a noisy cricket, and the occasional rustle and whisper of wind blowing past the trees. However, as he imagined the wind, he saw her, as if she stood in front of him, smiling.

"Someone looks like he's in loooove," a voice whined out, in a long, drawn-out tone from the bunk above him.

Emmet smiled, curled beneath his itchy, burlap-sack excuse for a blanket and replied, "Never mind, Jeff."

"Sure, kid. Sure."

Silence returned. He smelled the trees, the only scent that he had breathed in when he saw her. Now that he had met her, it seemed as though nothing else in his life meant anything. The war meant nothing. The army meant nothing. His uniform meant nothing, his friends, his commanding officer, his home in England, none of it mattered. That familiar, evil sense of rushing things, of jumping too far, of expecting the best creeped into his skin again, but, like always, he shrugged it off as easily as if the wind had carried it off.

He was in love. It was a very nice feeling, to be in love. He felt as though his life had a purpose. He no longer fought for a country, for a government, or for a principle. Now, he wanted to fight for her, to protect her, to keep her safe from all harm.

As his consciousness slipped off into the thicket of his mind, he knew that the uniforms meant nothing to him.

#

The uniforms meant everything to her.

As Wyldstyle's mind ran in circles, wandering, without sight or hearing through the ebony expanse of woods, panicking and begging for an escape, she tried to cling to the one thing that had always been there for her.

The uniform.

She had grown up in the colonies and joined the army, in what little ways she could, right after Lexington and Concord. It was her life. She dedicated her training, her breath, her sweat and her victories, to the war, to the fight for independence.

Now, a man, one who fought _against _her freedom, plagued her mind and tugged on her heart as if it was a toy.

He was a contradiction. He fought against her, against her values, yet his sweet, adorable, optimistic disposition calmed dusty corners of her mind she had not cleaned out since childhood. Was it wrong to expect, to rely on him so quickly, and so harshly, after only knowing him for a short while? Perhaps.

Helping her had been unnecessary. More than unnecessary, in fact. He should have shot her, dead on the spot, or taken her prisoner.

She smiled at their odd encounter, and how she had nearly broken his spine upon first meeting him. He was cute, she had noticed, even while threatening him.

"Wyldstyle?" Unikitty, the fiercest, most lovable, cutest Revolutionary popped into Wyldstyle's tent. "I wanted to see how you're feeling."

The caring, sweet words of her friend gently tore Wyldstyle away from her frightening, downward spiral. "It feels a lot better, thanks."

Unikitty smiled. "Good."

Silence tentatively entered the room, tipped its hat, and greeted the two. It pulled back a curtain and revealed the secret that lay in Wyldstyle's hands, the one she didn't know what to do with or how to handle.

"What are you going to do about him?" Unikitty ushered Silence out of the room, and it left Wyldstyle as she pleaded for its return.

"Who?" Wyldstyle's poker-face had won her awards, dates, money, and, in many cases, her life. If she had nothing else, she could lie like no other.

And, equally matching her talent, Unikitty could see through Wyldstyle's untainted wall of falsehoods like glass. "Please, I heard you two talking outside." Her eyes glinted with pride. "I have great hearing, and I put it to good use."

"It's none of your business."

Unikitty let only a beat pass them by. "Are you going to see him again?"

"I don't know."

Wyldstyle's eyes wandered over to her friend, and a vile wave of guilt crashed into her gut as she saw the disapproving frown on Unikitty's lips. She reminded Wyldstyle of a mother, sometimes. A mother who did not yell, did not punish, and did not let anger take her over. She reminded Wyldstyle of a mother who merely shook her head at her child's wrongdoings, sighed, as if she had failed parenting, and walked back home, leaving the juvenile delinquent devastated and guilty, without using a word.

"Don't look at me like that," Wyldstyle ordered, a brief yet curt flame in her hoarse voice.

"Like what?"

"You know, the 'I'm so disappointed in you' look."

While the camp regarded Wyldstyle as the toughest woman in all the colonies, Unikitty had always harbored the strange ability to waltz around Wyldstyle's prickly, gritty exterior, instead plucking out her emotions and spinning them in any which-way she chose. It was uncomfortable. Frightening, even, yet she stood for it. "Wyldstyle, if I look disappointed in you, that's because you _want _me to look disappointed, because you're really disappointed in yourself, you just want me to tell you what you already know."

"I'm all grown up, Unikitty." Wyldstyle sucked in a sharp breath of the air; it smelled of burning wood, pine trees, and unwashed cloth. "I can decide who I see, when I see him, and if I see him."

"Mmh-hm. Sure."

Groaning, Wyldstyle fell back onto her bed. "I shouldn't even be thinking about this. I already have Batman."

"Oh, you mean Colonel A-Different-Nurse-a-Night?" Unikitty snorted, looking to the side of the white tent as if Batman stood there. "Trust me, you'd be better off with any random guy in any British camp than him."

The distant, stark cry of a wolf, hidden somewhere in the thicket, reminded Wyldstyle of the hours ticking by. "I'm going to bed."

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning, but think about what I've said, alright?" Unikitty's eyes, trusting and hopeful, locked on Wyldstyle's, like an encouraging yet somewhat conniving parent who knew a bit too well how to convince their child to do what was right. "He sounded cute, by the way."

"Goodnight."

"Night, Wyldstyle."

The door opened, and a brief beam of moonlight intruded the oily night before it swung shut, wood-on-wood, and creaked upon contact.

Wyldstyle smiled. No matter if she chose him or the uniform, for one night, she had both, at least in the deep, crazy, wandering thicket of her mind.

#

Emmet waited. He had waited for a lot of things in his life. For school, for graduation, to join the Army, to fight in the war, and now, for a girl.

His hand burned when he touched the boulder behind him. The sun, absent and afraid yesterday, chose to show it's crowning glory today and boil everything in its enormous view. However, the animals seemed used to the heat, for every minute that passed, he saw a tiny squirrel scamper past, a rabbit hop around, or, an hour ago, a massive, growling, black bear behind a tree. Michael shouldn't have worried about enemy soldiers, he should have worried about some of the _very _large and _very _scary-looking wildlife.

A melodious, happy morning bird chirped, as if reminding Emmet why he was here, and that his reason had not shown up yet.

Tilting his head up to the sky, Emmet saw the little blue jay was correct, and the sun had moved a considerable distance since he had gotten there, and Wyldstyle had failed to show up.

Mere snags, Emmet assured the frazzled, panicking section of his mind. She would come. She said she would. She held his hand. She kissed him. He had nothing to worry about.

His quivering hands told him otherwise.

He sighed, looking out towards the thicket. "Where are you?"

#

The sun had moved since Emmet's hopes started to drift. The sun inched along quietly, like a child's ball down a flat hill, across the expanse of oceanic sky, not a care for Emmet's predicament. It creeped along, first hitting noon, where it hung perfectly above the trees, then late afternoon, when Emmet started to question how a sun even held itself up, followed by evening, when crimson and gold paint melded together against the weary sun.

Now, night fell, and the dazzling light-show of fiery colors dissolved, following the sun as it gave the moon its duties. The longer Emmet looked at the sky, the more stars he counted. First it was three, then five then seven or nine, after that, he could only be certain it was more than twenty.

He thought to look towards the huddled mass of trees again, in juvenile hopes she had arrived, but weariness and crashed optimism told him to look at the sky for a little longer. The stars were here, and she was not.

The air was different at night, Emmet concluded. During the day, he could breathe in pine trees, flowers, grass, nature. But, during the night, he only inhaled the frigid, cool beginnings of nighttime wind.

He did not know what it meant that she had not showed.

A multitude of excuses reached his mind, trying to resuscitate his long-dead hope, but the truths shot them all dead on the spot. She had not intended to come, and he was just a young fool in love, who held on the first pretty girl to give him a sideways glance.

His knuckles cracked as he grabbed his gun, slid off the boulder, and landed on the sloshing, wet, muddy ground. He never once looked back his whole walk back to camp.

#

"EMMET, LOOK OUT!"

"ACK!"

Jeff's saving-grace words warned Emmet just in time, and he ducked into the trench right before a bullet whizzed by his head. He had no time to wonder how many times death had tapped him on the shoulder, whispered in his ear, or tripped right in front of him.

Sweat dripped down his forehead. He tasted blood on his lips. His lungs flailed against his ribcage for a breath. Mud and half-dried rain pressed through his uniform onto his back. His eyes beat and pounded like a heart, while his heart either went so fast he couldn't feel it, or it wasn't pumping at all.

"First battle's always the worst, kid." Jeff shot a bullet across the field, and Emmet wondered which of the screams belonged to the new owner of the projectile. "Just block out everything in your mind except how to shoot, breath, and duck. And remember how to run for your life, just in case."

Emmet didn't respond. Turning over, he reopened his hazy eyes to the battlefield. Dust rained down on the field. A soldier's boot lay mere feet from him. A gun rested in front of him, thumbprints of blood pressed against the hot, freshly-shot metal. He refused to look at the faces of the dead soldiers for fear he would recognize them all too well.

"Shoot your gun, Brickowski!"

He couldn't identify the voice, but he could take orders.

He pointed the weapon out into the battle field. His hand shook on the trigger so terribly the butt of the gun shuddered against this shoulder. He looked for someone's legs to shot. He could not kill. He would not kill.

Everyone buzzed by him, either going in and out of trenches or running past too quickly for him to take his load out on someone.

Finally, a small figure came into view, in a faraway trench. He could just make out the form, and the shoulder of the figure.

He could not kill, but he had to shoot.

"SHOOT THE GUN!"

His lips trembled, and his tears melded with the blood smeared against his face, but he readied the gun, and aimed.

The dust settled for the briefest of moments, and hair of midnight, dashed against stark magenta and sapphire, met his view, resting around a blood-splattered face of the love of his life. She held a gun, the muzzle pointed right of his head. Where fright and despair lay in her eyes, shock overtook, and they froze.

The dust fell over again, and she vanished as easily as the fallen soldiers.

Michael saw the conflict in his young, naïve soldier's face. Shock, guilt, fear, but beyond that, he saw indecision, hopelessness, and traces of regret. Soldiers weren't supposed to regret. Michael's eyes darted across the field, but he saw nothing that could have gripped his soldier like that. He assumed shock, pure, first-battle shock. He didn't have time for that.

Without a word, he crouched in the muddy, bug-infested, sweaty trench, grabbed Emmet's arm and pulled, yanking on the trigger for him.

The shot fired, snapped through the air, and they heard nothing of it for a split-second, until a scream hit the air.

Amidst the cries, the watering eyes and bleeding foreheads, the gunshots and the smoke, Michael hollered into whimpering Emmet's ear, "It's the circle of the war, kid." He had taken Emmet, a young, naïve boy thrown into the horrific bloodshed of battle, and mangled him into a man who knew how to shoot a gun.

"You'll get over it."

#

Wyldstyle waited, by the rock, in vain. Her face flushed, not from the agonizing, scorching heat the sun had neglected to collect on its departure, but from her own ridiculous attempt to catch what she had already lost. Like going after a butterfly that had flown away the day before, she waited for him, in hopes for the one-in-a-million chance that he would return.

She breathed in, never smelling the scent of pine wood and rushing rivers, instead struggling to choke down the traces of gunpowder, blood, and death. It overtook the natural aroma like a boxer against a paper punching bag. The sky hung above her, and she got the sense that it was just as exhausted as she. It was exhausted with the war, the day's turmoil, the work, the death, everything.

There was a sense of guilt, of owing an explanation, shifting in her chest. She had seen him just long enough to spark a rough flame of confusion, betrayal, and longing between their eyes, but not nearly extensive enough to heal the wounds.

If he never saw her again, she deserved that. She understood that. However, to satisfy her own conscience and her need for closure, she wanted to be there, just in case he showed.

For all she knew, he was dead, and she was even more of an idiotic, hopeful dunce than she knew.

She had spotted the blood on his face from across the battle field. The sweat that had laced his forehead, the blood smeared across his cheek, the tears running around his eyes, she had seen it all, and of all the images she had attained during the war, that was the one she wished she could erase the most.

A stirring in the thicket hit her ears and broke her from her trance. She sat up, an awful mix of fear, nauseous anxiety, and tense defenses rising in her throat like a surging wave. Her hand grabbed the cool metal of the gun and pulled it up to her in perfect silence.

She held the gun against her shoulder and aimed towards where the sound came from.

The bush stirred, and just as she moved to the lock of her gun, Emmet came into her view.

The gun faltered in her hands and her jaw fell slack at the sight of the man she had thought long out of her reach, if not dead. "Emmet?" She didn't expect him to hear her words, she could hardly pick them up herself.

He took another step out of the woods, but he did not respond, and she did not speak. They stared at each other, bodies frozen and hearts trembling.

On instant, they ran into each other's arms.

"You're not hurt? Thank you, Wyldstyle, you're not hurt." He gripped her all the tighter, as if he could save her from any past possibility of pain. His breath, labored and choked, caught against her neck as she gently sobbed into his shoulder. He smelled of blood and gunpowder, and never before had she longed for the scent of nature so desperately.

They stood, entwined in each other, as the moon smiled upon them fondly.

Emmet rubbed her back, and she rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed and lazy, as if she could fall asleep in his arms. "Why didn't you tell me? You shouldn't be doing that."

She paused, feeling his grip tighten as he pressed her against him, possibly to keep her from pulling away, not that he had anything to worry about. "I don't know. Being a soldier makes me feel like I'm helping the war."

"I don't like it. I don't want you to help the war if it means I could lose you."

The sweet, naïve words tapped her heart in ways she had never felt before. He cared for her, so much so that he was broken up over nearly losing her, just after knowing her for a little over a day. "Lucy." The word tasted foreign on her tongue, but lifted a weight off her shoulders at the same time.

Warmth left her, yet he kept his arms firmly on her sides. "Huh?"

She smiled softly. "My name…it's Lucy."

Emmet paused, searching her face, for what, she did not know. On an instant, he smiled. "I like that name."

Funny, she noticed, of all the sweet things he had said to her, that was the one that gave her the final nudge, and she kissed him, full and loving on the mouth.

Shock and wonder coursed through his body. He had never kissed, been kissed, or seen people kiss. And now, here he was, in the middle of who-knows-where on a brand-new continent, kissing the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

Much too soon, she pulled back. Her attempt to keep her gasps under control failed. "Uh, I was just…I don't know…"

"I love you!"

They stared at each other, as they had done on the battle field, in questioning uncertainty and mystery. Were they taking things too far, too fast, and too soon? Probably. Yet, in the moment, and in the war, they could only live for the moment, and they couldn't care if they tried.

Lucy watched in careful amusement as he stuttered, "I…I mean…I don't…"

The urge to tease him was irresistible. "Oh, you don't? That's too bad, because I was going to say I love you too."

The shock on his face was not the same type that he had worn on the battle field, this shock was cute, hopeful, and characteristic of everything she loved about him. "Are you sure?" He asked the question as if he had real, serious doubt as to whether she meant it.

"Yes, Emmet, I'm sure."

"Can I kiss you?"

"Definitely."

Emmet never returned to his camp that night, he instead joined the Revolution with Lucy. They both survived the rest of the war and lived in the new-born America, and Emmet made sure to stay in contact with his family back in England. They had two children, Emma and Luke, and lived in Philadelphia for all fifty-two years of their marriage.


	15. Save Me

**A/N: I'm SO glad everyone liked the last one, I was worried about an AU, but I'm glad you guys liked it! THANKS SO MUCH! This one took a while, mainly because of the changes it went through. This thing has been about Rex, Unikitty, Christmas, their kids, it's gone through a LOT before I settled on this. TRIPLE SIGH. This is my longest oneshot for this collection…sorry lol. ****_Note: I'm using a real-life location for part of this, New Orleans. Sry. _****ENJOY!**

* * *

"Aw, Lucy, come on, please!"

"No!"

"Can't we talk abo–"

"NO!"

"Lucy!"

Finally, after emitting a low groan, Emmet's fiancée stomped on the floor to turn to him, her feet separated like a pitcher at the mound. "Will you shut up? Just leave me alone!" Her eyes sliced into his for the entirety of the three seconds she blessed him with contact, then continued her rampage to their room.

"You haven't even told me what I did wrong!" Emmet's lip quivered as he turned sharply around the hallway. His balance nearly tripped beneath him, he reached out, and his hand just hardly brushed against her hoodie sleeve. The smell of fresh paint wafted into his gasp, combatting with the salty taste of his own tears streaming down his face. "Pl-please, Lucy?"

"Stop! That won't work this time!" He had never heard her voice so close to the core of the earth. He retracted his hand weakly as she tore her arm away, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring down at him. "Don't look at me like that!"

"Like what?" Emmet spread his arms out wide, and his voice cracked under a stifled sob that he couldn't hold back. Lucy was fighting with him – why? She had never fought with him! She never got mad at him! She got mad at other people, then ranted to him about all their shortcomings and wrongdoings, and he would comfort her. What had he done?

The clacking of her grinding teeth sent Emmet's trembling frame a step back, and her crimson face exploded at him once more, "All apologetic! You don't even get it, do you? Tell me why I'm upset, Emmet."

"I don't know!"

For one miniscule, insignificant window, she did not reply, instead staring at him like he had gone on a weekend escapade with another woman. Her fists clenched in her hoodie pockets, and he nearly stroked her cheek at how she bit her bottom lip.

"Fine, Emmet," she seethed. She stomped a step too close to him, and he shuddered beneath his tears, sucking in the sobs as she hollered into his face, "You never make time for me anymore! It's always work, or helping someone, or seeing friends, or appearances, it's always something other than me!"

His sense of balance swayed, and he reached out to the wall, clamped his eyes shut and trembled. His vision skewed. His head lost three pounds. His heart contracted as if dying, then collapsed, weak against his ribcage. "Lucy, I…I don't…I would never…"

The excuse did nothing, and Lucy cried out, "Yes, you would! You do! When I wake up in the morning, you're gone, off doing who-knows-what, and I don't see you until midnight, if that, and by then you're too tired to even talk to me!" Her voice gave way under the pressure and cracked before she could go on, "You…you never think about me anymore! It's always the city, or someone who needs help, or a meeting, and I never see you anymore! Goodness knows what you do on those weekends."

Emmet's eyes shot open, from despair to disbelief, and for a moment, he was numb. He couldn't move. His view left his body, his jaw slackened, and nothing followed his commands. Trapped. Nothing worked. Nothing listened.

"Lucy…" He swallowed a sob down his throat. "…I don't know how to make you believe me, but you _know _I would never do anything!"

Pausing at his deep tone, her shoulders loosened, and her muscles finally released their death grip on her bones. He looked at death's door: Sweat laced his forehead, tears crawled around his eyes, he breathed too much in one instant and too little in the next, and she nearly reached out to catch him as his knees quivered and knocked against each other.

_"Aw, Emmet's a sweetie! He's always so nice when we go on work-weekends," Gail gushed. She smiled, and her eyebrows raised to her too-big forehead. "You're _so _lucky to have such an attentive fiancé."_

The next moment Emmet looked, Lucy's eyes had dressed in bloodshot crimson, and her jaw clenched as if death became a plausible prospect in her near future. "I don't need you. Go ahead. Go make new friends, go spend all your time helping people, I don't care anymore."

As if stomping his feelings into the ground was her mission for the day, she turned to the bedroom, muttering, "You can sleep on the couch tonight."

"It's all about you!"

Her feet stuck to the carpet, and she paused.

No one had ever challenged her.

Her title, her pride, her position challenged, Lucy dared Emmet to take his defense a step farther, and faced him. "What did you say?"

Where she had expected him to shrink back, to run away, to make a mad dash to kiss her, his guard only grew. His shuddering ceased, his eyes fired shots of bloody veins, and his jaw set. "You don't care about me! You always want me to do everything for you." A brittle laugh cracked through the hallways and echoed along every crack and creak. "It's beautiful, smart, talented Lucy and poor, lonely, undeserving Emmet, who should just be grateful to be with you, right?"

Her arms pressed against her hips, and she hollered, "Well, it certainly sounds about right!"

"Of course it does!" Sweltering steam practically hovered in her fiancé's air. "You don't think I try to be with you? People need me! I skip lunch to call you, I miss meetings to get home, I'm trying, Lucy, but you still get mad at me!"

If they fought in space, Emmet could still hear Lucy's scream, "You don't get it!"

"_YOU _DON'T GET IT!"

"SHUT UP!"

Lucy clung her arms to her sides, as if bracing herself for battle, and hollered one last remark at her trembling, hot-faced fiancé. "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"FINE!"

He stormed to the living room, and she marched to the bedroom, where the crack of the door colliding shut vibrated through the skeleton of the house, echoing in both of their minds for several minutes after.

#

She didn't understand.

She didn't get it.

She didn't know what he did.

Rubbing his hands over his face, Emmet collapsed onto the couch. While it was usually soft, warm and comfortable, a haven when life became too noisy, now it was scratchy, cold, hard and rough, reminding him that his special best friend, the love of his life, seethed with rage upstairs, all because of him.

The frayed edges of his pajamas twitched and folded over in his hand, a well-deserved fidget for the stress she had put him under. It was her fault.

Did she understand what he went through? Did she know that whenever he had to spend a weekend with Gail, he turned into a bitter, bothersome, Rex-like monster who cared nothing for anyone's feelings? There was a reason that Unikitty stopped coming to those weekend meetings. She hated seeing him like that. Even Unikitty, master of all things optimistic, didn't want to associate with Emmet when he was like that.

Everyone knew Emmet didn't want to be clogged with celebrity appearances. And, in the beginning, the public had respected his decision. He made occasional appearances, rare talks, and seldom went to city-meetings.

Slowly, that changed.

People called him more. Pen marks riddled his calendar, color-coded for personal and professional. Red meant professional, and blue meant personal. Back in June, now a month that reminded him of carefree weekends and infinite bouts of time, blue reigned as the dominate color on his calendar. A red scratch here, a crimson mark there, and everyone was fine with it. No one made a fuss.

Then, like blaring, simmering rage, red overtook his notebook. It seemed to happen over the course of last month, October, and he hardly saw his fiancée. Two meetings a week turned to four. A public talk every two weeks turned into three every five days. Free, guarded weekends collapsed.

His chipper, peasant personality had stood the blows, punch after punch, for all the Halloween-loved, chilly month. Perhaps, when he came home, he wasn't in the best of moods, and Lucy probably saw that. He would admit that, he noted, as he tossed in the ever-shrinking space of the couch. He would admit that he had used up most of his kind, upbeat attitude on the cameras, leaving her with whatever was left.

His heart rattled and cried out against his chest, closing in and tightening. He gasped for breath that he didn't know he was missing, and his hand clutched the side of the couch as his lips trembled.

_"It won't take long, Lucy. I'll be back before you know it!"_

_"Don't worry about Gail, alright? You're paranoid."_

_"Love you, I'll be back around five…or six. Make it seven, to be safe."_

Sweat draped his clenched fists. He bit back a sob. His throat itched and scratched for water, mercy, and relief from whatever was causing his pain. His stomach hurled. He grabbed the couch and gasped.

Finally, biting down on his lip, he collapsed back onto the couch and began to cry.

How long he had sat there and sobbed, Emmet didn't know. Five minutes? The whole night? Time skewed and danced in trickery before his sober eyes, pricking his heart and sense of perception.

When the tears had dried, leaving stains on his face, Emmet forced himself, with preliminary regret and hatred, to open his eyes.

The vibrant sky met him.

"Come on, kid, wake up. Man, you really do sleep like a log." The rough voice scratched and knuckled against Emmet's ears, and the great urge begged him to either followed its orders or ignore it until the end of time. Whichever's quicker, his gut told him.

Opting to ignore the voice, Emmet buried his weary, heavy head deeper into the…pavement? Hot pavement. Searing, concrete lined a sidewalk, where weeds and grass protruded between planks.

Curiosity won out against his confusion, and Emmet pushed himself off the sidewalk. The scent of spring grass, cool and pollen-choked, wafted in his gasp as his very own Cloud Cuckoo Land stared straight back at him and offered a handshake.

New Orleans.

Emmet's dream city, the only place he had ever fantasized about. A double-decker, candy-red bus hopped past him, passengers waving and tourists clicking as he stared, an uncontrollable laugh escaping his lips as he trembled with excitement.

"Yup, you guessed it," the voice said from beside him.

As the bus rolled along, thin but barred structures stood, straight-spined and proud with age, across the intersecting road. His feet nearly carried him towards it, but a rough hand held him back, and he stared instead. An indigo sports bar displayed flags from every part of the world on one end, a boutique of taffeta purses and bubblegum mascots sparkled with promises of perfume. Across, in-between, and behind stood a hundred-year-old theater, a candy-store, and uncountable numbers of studios and shops mixed around the city.

The voice, chuckling slightly, said with a carless but purposeful tone, "And hey, guess who else is here?"

"EMMET!"

Emmet's pulse ran at the shot of the gun.

Again, a laugh rang out behind him. "Go after her."

He didn't need to go far. The moment he turned around, standing before a warm, welcoming, ruby home, lined up in perfect order next to several other homes and behind a multitude of trees, stood his wife. The only one he had ever flirted with (no matter how unsuccessfully), the only one he had ever kissed, held, and loved with the fullness one only experiences once in a blue moon.

Lucy smiled, the smile she gave him when she wanted to tease him. "Well?"

The distance, the grass, the sidewalk, the trees, the steps, it all shrunk with very step he took, and she collapsed into his arms within a few moments.

"Missed you," she murmured, rubbing his back in lazy circles with a slight pressure.

He slowed his breath. She wore his favorite perfume, the one she had graced him with whenever she had a surprise for him, it was his birthday, or some occasion called for a gift. She could make him drool just with that perfume. "I love you, Lucy."

Following his words, her warm, soft hands slipped into his, and the next moment he opened his eyes, a slim, raven dress hugged Lucy's waist, adorned with her usual fuchsia-teal stripes. The sleeves fell just an inch past her shoulders, and she blushed lightly. "I'm sorry we fought, Ems." She cut off any reply he could offer by leaving forward, pausing for a moment to tease him, before finally letting him kiss her.

"Mmhm…me too…" he murmured into her lips as she kissed him again, running her hands along his arms.

After a loving, time-freezing moment, Lucy broke the kiss. She smiled and titled her head towards the white-washed door. "Come on, the kids are waiting to say goodbye."

_Kids?_

Paying no mind to his trance, Lucy gently guided him through the door and into the house. The cool breeze of nature, the type one breathes in while Trick-Or-Treating, exchanged itself for the scent of a century-old home, remodeled but undisturbed.

"Emma! Liam! Joy! Come say goodbye to your parents!" Lucy turned to her husband, rolled her eyes, and leaned against the wall. "Honestly, you think with us as parents, they'd be able to run a little faster."

His curiosity won out. "Where are we going?"

"Remember? Benny, Sweet and Unikitty are babysitting while we finally have a date." She smirked, slipping her hand in his. "Did Liam steal your calendar again?"

Before Emmet could answer, the children barreled down the hallway, all standing at different heights and running at varying speeds. "Bye, guys! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" The tallest, and assumingly the oldest, girl hollered, waving at her parents in a premature goodbye.

"Emma," Lucy said, rolling her eyes. She scooped up the smallest child, a girl, nearly a toddler, and passed her to a star-struck, trembling Emmet. "We're not leaving yet. Remember to take care of your siblings, ok?"

Emma smirked, saluted, and tap-danced her way next to her mom. Her chocolate locks, curled and twisted around natural, sapphire highlights, bounced as she halted before her parents. "Yes, ma'am!"

"What about me?" A boy, hair soaked with teal, waved his hands for attention. "What do I have to do?"

"How about _not _going through your sister's diary?" Lucy smirked.

"That would be a nice change."

"I'm the brother! It's my job to snoop."

"Lucy…" Emmet, finally regaining his ability to form words, looked at Lucy with glassy eyes and parted, quivering lips for guidance, answers, anything resembling information as his youngest, Joy, waved her arms around and giggled lightly.

"You ok, Ems?" Lucy's voice softened, and she brushed her husband's hair away from his face with a warm touch.

Emmet nodded, rubbed his eyes against his sleeve, and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. You kids be good for Benny and Sweet, alright?"

The two children in front of him smiled, nodded, and ran forward to hug him tightly. "Love you, Daddy!" Even Joy, hardly old enough to understand why one should wear shoes outside, moved to hug her father.

As Emmet's face flushed and he refused to contain his grin, Emmet whispered to his smiling, tearful wife, "Lucy, look! They like me!"

His favorite sound in the world, that of her laugh, filled the room. "I love you, Emmet." Leaning forward, she gave him a quick kiss. "Foreva."

#

She was losing him.

After delivering a swift, Master-Breaking-worthy punch to her own pillow, slamming the poor object down on the bed, and finally collapsing her head onto it, Lucy tried, for the fifteenth time, to sleep.

A minute rolled by.

Nothing.

Groaning, she buried her head into her pillow and emitted a rapturous sigh. Why couldn't she sleep? If anything, she should have gotten to sleep _faster_ without Emmet there. When she slept with Emmet, he invaded her space. He kicked in his sleep, he mumbled and talked, he held her tightly, he snuggled against her, he kissed her before saying goodnight…

_I'm going to kill him._

Moreover, when she was angry, she usually fell unconscious like a coma patient. She could count to three, and by two, she would have passed like someone had sedated her. Anger tired her out, ironically.

She shot a quick glance at the clock, the bane of her existence. _11:57 P.M._

_If Emmet was out on his 'business' stuff, he wouldn't even be home by now._

The rose-gold, glittering, flawless engagement ring slipped and twiddled on her finger as she fidgeted with it. He loved her. That's why he had proposed. That's why he had, finally, after all those years, gathered up the courage to ask her the question. She had said yes immediately, of course.

That was before. Before he started coming home late, before he left her on weekends, before he had to squeeze time with her into his schedule, before it all.

Slipping off the smooth ring, she hardly made out the thin inscription on the inside.

_I only love when I'm with you._

Lucy scoffed and shoved the ring back on, biting her lip as she did. "Sure, sure, you love me. Why don't you stay home some time to prove it?" She loved him too much. She loved him so much she couldn't break his heart if she wanted to. She couldn't even want to break his heart! She couldn't hurt him, she couldn't leave him for days at a time so he knew how it felt, she couldn't show him how terrible it was to miss him at night.

Was it her?

It would make sense, she regarded bitterly. It was a logical assumption that she had finally driven him over the edge, finally hurt him too many times, finally forced his hand into leaving. No one could stand her for that long. Vitruvius and Unikitty. Those two people could stand her for years, then again, they were two of the sweetest souls in the universe. Even Batman, her boyfriend for a whole year, had required certain amounts of time away from her.

_Well, you've finally done it. You drove the most perfect, most wonderful, most innocent guy away. Great job._

She clutched the sheets, and her knuckles whitened over. Her breath hitched in her throat. She scrambled to sit up. She inhaled. She could breathe. She exhaled. She couldn't breathe.

_He's probably happy._

_He's been waiting for this._

_He's packing right now, just waiting for the right time to tell you he's leaving._

_You never meant much to him._

_Does he have Gail on his contacts?_

"Shut up, shut up!"

Tears mocked her as they thrashed on her pillow, and instead of avoiding them, she let them trickle down her face. Crying felt good.

Defeated, Lucy lay on her pillow, and sleep, finally, after feeling she had suffered enough, welcomed her in with a harsh hand.

When or how her tears had dried, she didn't need to know.

"Sheesh, you're pathetic. Get up."

The insult served some purpose, as mockery triggered a chord in Lucy at all times, no matter her mood or state, and it nearly moved her to push her tired body off the ground. What was she lying on, anyway? Her hands ran over the ground, but she felt nothing but…something. She felt matter, she felt existence of material, but as for texture and feel, nothing came. She couldn't move.

Her muscles seized as she pushed against gravity, but it tugged back without a care, and she nothing budged.

"Ugh, this is just sad. Look, your husband's waiting," the female, judgmental voice muttered.

_Husband?_

"Lucy!"

The voice tore her from whatever introduction she had listen to, and before she could sit up, strong, gentle hands lifted her up. Her eyes fluttered open to see her husband across from her, smiling down at the ground.

"Ems?' His nickname slipped out of the little breath she had left. "Where are we?"

"Well, I like the name, 'Lucy Land,' but you can call it whatever you want," he giggled, whisking her along like she weighed nothing.

He halted, and her feet sunk into malleable, soft, doughy material. Only upon looking down did she realize she stood in sand, but that mattered little when she realized that her hoodie had traded itself in for a slim, one-piece, amethyst swimsuit. Sunlight beamed off her angelic skin, and she found every spot of acne, every birthmark, and every imperfection she had once lamented on her face had willed itself away. She didn't know how, but she knew she looked beautiful_._

And, she noted, smiling, judging by the look on Emmet's face, he agreed.

"How do I look?" she asked, beaming up at him as the temperature set into her senses. She shifted off the hot sand onto a cool beach towel, sitting just beneath a cabana.

"How do you look? Lucy, you're perfect!" His hands cradled her waist, pulling her close against him. "I love you."

She smiled, noticing that he now wore swim trunks, with just a cute, miniscule dollop of sunscreen on his nose. "I love you too, Ems."

Her shoulders dropped, and she tensed in his embrace as her gaze shifted. "Is anyone else here?"

Thankfully, Emmet shook his head. "Nope! Just the two of us, like you wanted. Unikitty's visiting family a few towns over, remember?"

"Let's go swimming!" She grabbed his hand faster than he could react, and whipped him along to the edge of the beach, where teal waves, about shoulder-height, crashed and collided at the banks of the shore. They slid down the sand into the water's edge, and cool, rushing liquid washed over their feet. She never let go of his hand.

"Oh, Lucy, wait, watch this!" Emmet pulled her gently into the water, and it traveled, inch by inch, up to her waist. They treaded through the water until he guided her to a rock, sitting just close enough to the beach that she could spot their beach-home, secluded and quaint.

Emmet heaved himself onto the rock, and helped her up shortly after. "Ok, ready?" She nodded as he stood up on the rock. "Three, two, one!"

Following his cry, Emmet jumped into the water, head first, effectively splashing Lucy with a monstrous but quick wave. His head reappeared above the water a moment later. "How was that!"

"You got me all wet!

"I know!"

She grinned wickedly, pushing herself against the crystalline boulder to tower above him. "Oh, you're in for it, Brickowski."

He had hardly any time to escape before she jumped in after him, grabbed his arms, and pulled him down into the water. She laughed through the depths, and he lifted her back up, apnting and smiling as water dripped from both of them. "I give you a ten out of ten, Lucy," he gasped, inhaling the sweet air.

Reaching up to his hair, she commented, "I've never seen you with wet hair before, it's cute."

The blush on his face faded against the crimson, ginger flares of the setting sun, illuminating their space and warming the water, almost unnaturally. Lucy could just reach down to the soft, soaked sand with her feet, floating up in the rushing water.

She linked her arms around his neck. "I love you."

"I love you too." Before she could take the moment to kiss him, he pressed her gently up against the rock and leaned close, where their labored breathes mixed. He froze. "Uh, I mean, I just…I always wanted to kiss you in the ocean.

She smiled. "What are you waiting for?"

It was the last thing she said before his lips met hers in a passionate kiss.

While cool air fluttered around them, Lucy knew nothing could be wrong when he kissed her, especially when the kiss felt so _right_. He held her gently, and she urged him to deepen it, which he did so tentatively, like always. There was always a shyness when he kissed her, like it was their first time. She didn't mind.

"Ems," she murmured, running her hands along his arms. She broke the kiss for a moment, and flushed at the heaviness of her breath. "You wanna go home?"

He nodded, taking her hand in his as they waded back to the shore, where the same banks they had entered on now seemed lower, where they could climb out easily. Still, she accepted the hand he offered, and they walked back to the cabana. Emmet draped a warm beach towel over her shoulders, pressed a quick kiss to her cheek, and took her hand in his as they began the trek back to their house.

"Today was perfect, Emmet." Lucy tilted her head to the side, where she caught him already gazing with dreams and love in his eyes.

"We get to do it all over again tomorrow." He released her hand, wrapped it lazily around her shoulders, and whispered, "We never have to leave, Lucy. It's just us."

_Just us._

A breath passed over Lucy's lips like the breeze, and she nodded. The idea of never leaving her haven resembled children's view of summer in May, when freedom is so close one can taste the ice cream and feel the water splashing against swimsuits. "Perfect," she replied.

"Emmet!" Happiness brushed against her voice as she exclaimed towards the edge of the beach. "Come on, I see some seashells, let's get a few." She tugged him along towards the edge of the beach, sand flying up and scratching her ankles, not that she cared much as they slid down the banks, into the shore, and landed at the feet of hundreds of seashells. Moonlight reflected off the pearly, white surfaces, and Lucy bent down to pick one up, icy water rushing and running around her hand.

"Look at this one." She beckoned Emmet over, and held out in her palm a shell no bigger than an egg, tined with peach and specks of coral, in the shape of a fan.

"Cool! What about this?" Emmet held out a sparkling, glistening, chiffon conch shell. "I like this one."

Lucy nodded as she bent down to pick up the source of a glistening spark in the sand. "Ems, look." Her hand cradled the shell, and she scooped it out of the sand. A navy tint began at the bottom of the fan, then grew out into a lilac at the top. Strings of variations of cool blues wrapped around the shell, like tree rings.

"Looks like your eyes," Emmet murmured gently, as if commenting a fact no one agreed with.

Her soft gaze lifted up, and she smiled, her lips hardly parted as she grabbed his hand. With a full kiss, she promised, "I love you."

#

"What flavor did you end up getting?" Emmet shifted his view from his own blueberry-vanilla, icy dessert to his wife, who showed him her taffeta, sprinkled ice cream.

"Strawberry," she replied, shifting on the warm, sunlit, shamrock grass. The ground held the type of land children lay on the moment May hits, tearing off spring-jackets and enjoying the previews of summer warmth. Lucy ran her hands over the ground towards his hand. "What should we do next?"

What should they do next? He didn't have an answer to that. He had everything he wanted! Not a thing in his life was out of place. He had children, he had children with the most beautiful woman he had ever met, a home, friends, he could want for nothing else. He tried to think of one more thing that he could want, yet nothing that he didn't already possess came to him.

"Emmet?" Giggling slightly, Lucy repeated, "What should we–"

Her words halted on her lips as he pressed forward and kissed her, full and intentional on the mouth. The sweet, slow smile on her lips met his kiss, and she relaxed in his arms, gently returning the kiss. "I love you," he murmured., "A lot, Lucy. I love you a-lot-a-lot."

The sweet taste of sugar on her lips moved through the kiss. "Me too. I love you." She broke the kiss, and he bit his lip at how her breath hitched and her cheeks deepened into a low crimson. "You know, there's a surprise just a few blocks down…I was planning to wait until later, but I can't wait to see the look on your face." The taffy stretch across her freckles blew up like a bubble, and her rouge lips curled into a smile. "It kind of has to do with when we met."

"Let's go!" Grabbing her hand, whisked her off the hot grass and into the softly-clogged sidewalks of New Orleans, realized that he had no idea where they were going, and froze just before running into a lamppost. "Uh…yeah, you might know where we're going better than I do."

"You're adorable, you know that?" Leaning forward, she gave him a sweet, soft kiss. "Come on, it's really close."

Emmet eyes never left Lucy as they weaved through families, couples, teens, children, cousins, grandparents, friends and school kids. Something odd remained about her, and his life in general, but who was he to question it? Lucy loved him, she forgave him, and everything in his life seemed to lay perfectly in place. "Are we almost there?" He smiled through his giddy question, gripped her hand tighter, and she grinned as they turned a corner.

"Almost, babe. Close your eyes."

Not being one to refuse her orders, Emmet shut his eyes and let her guide him through streets and sidewalks, his mind wobbling and jumping from one conclusion to another. Something about when they first met? That could be anything, knowing their chaotic meeting.

He had hardly run through four notions when Lucy gently pulled back on his wrist. "Ok, you can open them."

It seemed, Emmet noted, that he had tears in his eyes the moment he opened them.

Before him lay a perfect replica, down to each brick shade and shape, of the shadowed, murky hallway where she had first opened up to him, revealed her name, and, in his mind, finally let him see the beautiful woman he had always known lived in her.

No words broke the silent air as he walked from the sidewalk to the metal floor, surrounded by oily, tube-like walls crowded around him. Under most circumstances, to most people, such a dense surrounding would cause discomfort, even panic, but to him, it was like coming home after a long, monotonous, stressful trip away at college.

"Brings back memories, huh?" she chuckled lightly behind him. Her arms cradled around his chest as she hugged him gently, resting her head on his shoulder with a drowsy, comfortable air that could only be achieved by pure time together.

Nodding, her turned around to face her, finding her freckles already lightly colored with bubblegum. The light hit her the same way it had that night. That was the first time he had ever experienced what it meant to find a woman beautiful, in the way a man can find nothing wrong with his love's appearance. Often after that night, he had wished he was more poetic, because he believed fine, rhythmical words were the only way to really describe how she had looked that night. She had never smiled so warmly, so delicately, so kindly at him until that moment. The way she had tiled her head down in shy, uncharacteristic embarrassment still rang out in his memory. She had radiated the rose light like a sunset, unbreakable yet fleeting.

"Ems?" Lucy smirked. "Daydreaming?"

Before she could snap him out of his trance, he reached forward and kiss her, loving and grateful on her lips, only hoping she knew how much she meant to him.

She smiled beneath the kiss. "Me too."

#

By the time they arrived at the porch of their home, the sun had tipped its hat and left, content to let the moon light the way for baby turtles making their way to the ocean. "Lucy, look!" Emmet pointed to a cluster of newly-hatched turtles, a few feet away. "They're so cute!"

Lucy stepped up onto the wood, white-washed porch, where grains of sand and pebbles lay scattered around. "You wanna go watch them for a while?"

Shaking his head, Emmet replied, "No, we'll look tomorrow, I'm beat."

She gave him a soft kiss as he opened the door. "Me too, babe. I'm gonna take a shower."

The moment she stepped in the door, her breath left her.

Everything she had ever dreamed of lay in that home. The entire house shone a daisy, wood-paneling, accented by beach-themed accessories. An anchor here, a jar of sea shells there, and a collection of vintage license plates hung just above her head on the back wall. Her feet stepped around the house as slow as her breath as she walked around the sapphire couch, adorned with honey pillows.

Stepping past the living room, she walked into the chic, modern kitchen with a touch of traditional. Coin-gray cabinets adorned the whole kitchen, hanging above mason jars of flour and sugar and miniature, fake starfish on the teal backsplash.

A giggling rang out behind her, and Emmet pointed to a door next to the fridge. A giddy rush swam through her veins, and she turned the golden knob to the room of her dreams.

She was kid in the candy store.

Every item on her wish list, doubled and improved, plus everything she had ever desired for, lay in the room. Skis, surfboards, crossbows, arrows, backpacks, hiking equipment and helmets adorned one stretched wall she could hardly see the end of. On the next, she could hardly count the basketballs, beach-balls, sneakers, volleyballs and nets, weights, and dartboards. A blue and pink bike, brand-new and shining with pride, shone at the end of the hallway.

Giddy and laughing with delight, she ran out, past the bathroom, which, just by a glimpse, she knew matched the rest of the home's oceanic theme, and to the bedroom.

The bedroom sat, quaint and secluded, in the back of the house. A king-sized bed took up much of the room, soaring up to her shoulders, just like she had dreamed of as a child. Two closets sat on either side, one filled with Emmet's clothes, and the other with her swimsuits, dresses, and day clothes.

Her hand ran over the plush, smooth, lapis bedspread on her path to the sliding glass door. Emmet unlocked it for her and followed her out onto the back-porch, where a sweet, salty-scented aroma floated past her along with the breeze. Strong arms wrapped around her waist, followed by a warm kiss on her cheek. "You like everything?"

How could she answer that? How could she explain that it was all she had ever dreamed of, it stretched to her wildest fantasies, that he had met every trance she had ever wished for, that he had perfected her life?

"Ems…it's perfect." As spun in his arms to face him, the house, the accessories, the gifts, it all faded around her like nightmares upon a mother's touch. _He _was what she needed. She could give it all away. She didn't need any of it. She needed him.

Reaching around his neck, she pressed a warm, lingering kiss on his lips, and his arms cradled around her waist.

She needed nothing else.

#

"Think the kids are still up?" Emmet asked as he stepped up onto the worn, stone steps of the house, his wife still holding his hand as she followed behind him.

The smirk on her lips glinted against the charcoal night, illuminated by the street-lights and neon signs from across the street. "Doubt it, Sweet's pretty good at rounding them all up." She paused, brushed a thin, soft lock of her artic hair out of her face, and smiled at her husband. Her hand twisted and turned over the key to the house as she spoke, "Today was wonderful, Emmet."

"Are you kidding? It was the best day ever!" He reached forward and hugged his wife tightly by her waist, and her giggle starkly contrasted the quiet perfection of the neighborhood. Emmet wouldn't have it any other way.

As her head rested in the crook of his neck, he rubbed her back in a slow, steady, caring motion, whispering, "I love you, Lucy. More than anything."

"Me too."

The soft hum of cheering from a sports bar, singing from a karaoke stage, and children's cries from a soccer park thrummed gently past the couple, as they remained entwined for a few moments, savoring the warmth and safety of each other. "You know," Lucy murmured, her voice dragged down by a drowsy weight. "If the kids are asleep, we could actually spend another hour or so out, they wouldn't know the difference."

"You sure?" Emmet struggled to hold down the elated agreement in his voice at the prospect of another whole hour of time with his wife in his favorite city, but she recognized it all too well.

She laughed against him, pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, and nodded. "Yes. Besides, we didn't get to go to the bumper cars you were whining about." A mischievous, drawn-out tone laced her words, and he protested her words.

"You wanted to go on them too!"

"Did not."

"Did so."

A brief pause broke in, before the two relented to quietly giggle.

"I'm just going to check on the kids. Love you." She leaned forward, pressed a long kiss to her husband's lips, and smiled before turning the key and stepping inside the home.

"Love," Emmet murmured long after she had gone, his words soft and mumbled together like they had melded into one. Lucy had always had an odd effect over him, and quite a tremendous one at that, but some days she tripped him over like she held a wand in one hand and a spell book in the other.

How had luck graced him so? Was he destined to it all along, or had he tripped up fate, stolen its money, and bought himself a wonderful life? Perhaps. The possibility that he had swiped such an existence was not lost on him, yet he harbored no desire to give it up. He had a wife and children. He could sacrifice the city lights, the cars, the house, the sweet smell of nature melding with coffee and burning street-fire, and the sense of endless security without blinking a tear away, if he had his family.

Men could want for many things. Men could want for drinks, for women, for money, fame, recognition, redemption, men could want for anything and everything. Perhaps Emmet was selfish in his own way, he thought, as he peered through the window in a quick glance for his wife. Perhaps his love for Lucy, and his children, was selfish.

A rattling clanked against the stone, and he looked down. A small, rectangular keychain, silver on both sides, lay among the small pebbles and moss of the steps. He picked it up, and the inscription jumped with glee before him. One side read, _I Found My Heart in The Big Easy, _and the other, _E & L 4-EVA._

He smiled, rubbed a tear away from his eyes, and tucked the metal into his pocket.

How long had gone by, he didn't know, but something about the minutes that had passed ran through his veins like slow, tainted water. He didn't appreciate the feeling, especially when everything had existed so perfectly up to that point. It must have bene his own fears and paranoia, right? After all, what could she be doing in there that would raise a concern?

Whereas the question was supposed to calm the rage of knots and gunshots in his stomach, it only pulled the triggers harder, and he grabbed onto the wall as his vision blurred like a camera lens before him.

_Bumper cars can wait. _

The door slipped open quietly as he stepped from mossy-stone and onto clean, smooth wood. "Lucy?" he called out her name, clamping a hand over his mouth when he remembered his sleeping children just up the winding, gold-rimmed staircase.

After slipping off his boots, locking the door through a vibrating hand he could not steady, and checking from left to right, Emmet stepped from room to room of the house, finding each one empty, but exiting with a newfound vile taste on his lips. Sweat laced his forehead. Pessimistic whispers strung him along. Never had he longed for his wife's voice so terribly.

The officious kitchen door towered above him, throwing riddle after enigma in his jumbled, hazy vision, blinking in and out of rooms, fictional and real, past and future. Was this a vision? Was Finn trying to tell him something?

A streak, a ray of cruel, flickering light burned through the crack between the door and the wall, thought Emmet could not see what lit, or diminished, the energy. He pleaded with the entryway to tell him if his wife stood inside, to give him some sort of warning, any parting words, but it merely shrugged and fluttered open, taunting him to take another step.

The wood creaked beneath his feet.

The door muttered as he pressed against it, begging him to let well enough alone and run while he had his wits about him.

Lucy leaned against the wall, kissing and wrapping her arms against Rex's neck, wrapped around her thin waist and holding her tighter and tighter.

"Lu…Lucy?"

Emmet had never experienced that strange, stirring, sickening sensation men suffer through in moments like this. At times, he did not believed it existed, until his vision unhinged itself from his form, lifted into the sky, and halted at the ceiling. He saw himself. He quivered like his blood had lit on fire. Even as Lucy dethatched herself from a smirking, snarky Rex, no reaction, not even shock, resonated through Emmet's cold form.

_Move! Get up, stop them! Say something, idiot!_

Yes, indeed, he was an idiot. He agreed wholeheartedly with his inner-voice's mocking, and would have run out of the house in a sobbing mess if he could. Or, perhaps he would have stayed and pleaded with her. Maybe he would have started throwing punch after punch at Rex. It mattered little. His muscles tensed when he ordered them to move, his lips froze when he forced breath, and his trembling frame ceased.

"Ems, look, I don't know how to explain it…" Lucy reached to Rex, who's sarcastic attitude subsided as his hand met Lucy's. "…Rex has been through a lot…"

Even a whimper was lost on him. Was his body shrinking? Was his vision blurring? Was he vanishing? Was he dying?

_No, get me out!_

"Lucy…" His limps tingled like a thousand needles had punctured him as his brain forced his body to protest the lovesick look in Lucy's eyes as she gazed at Rex. "…I love you." The words were a protest. A plea. An argument. A reason. A pause. A truth. A horror.

Without looking up, without meeting his gaze, without even thinking about her words, she mumbled, "I thought I did too, Emmet."

_Wake up, just wake up._

The kitchen tile collided with his head.

How long, again, he had sat in unconscious dreamland, if at all, he didn't know. His senses woke up before his mind, his mind before his body, and his body before his eyes, the last, stubborn piece that refused to comply.

He realized that the floor beneath his face was not frozen, icy tile, instead firm, rock-solid wood, pressing against his head and knocking his skull awake. "Lucy…" he found the murmur rumbling out his lips without consent.

_Lucy._

Like the flick of a light switch, Emmet shot up, his body gripped onto itself, and his weary legs hardly supported the alert tone his brain commanded. He looked up to the stairs, and, for a moment, weak, heavy steps trampled through the hallway.

_Please, let that be Lucy._

_I can't lose her again._

#

Breakfast simmered and cooked on the pan before Lucy, whose morning had only surpassed her day before by experiencing a morning by the beach. Whereas the waves quickly grew to the norm when one is standing in them, from a distance, they were new and constantly fresh, as she adored them from the kitchen window. "Emmet," she called, an unfamiliar hum in her voice. "Are you coming to breakfast?"

"One sec!"

A smile graced her lips, the type that one marvels at. Her smile was not for show, to impress, to prove, it was merely an effect of her emotions, and the satisfaction and contentment of having her husband alone, to herself, and away from any competitors. Here, in the secluded ocean setting, she never had cause for worry about his absence, his feelings, or women climbing all over him.

After dishing breakfast out onto two plates, rolling her eyes at her own lovesick behavior, she walked through the hallway towards the bedroom. "Ems? Seriously, you're sleeping later than I do, and we both know that's…" Her feet halted at the border between the hallway and the vacant bedroom. "…a lot."

As if the morning sun had flown into her body, Lucy began to swelter under the bedroom light. She cocked an eyebrow as her mind searched for conclusions. The bed wasn't made. Emmet's slippers sat at the side of the bed. His phone rested on his nightstand. The only thing missing was him.

A rushing, icy, salty breeze swept through the window and collided into her rough, soft hair, blowing it into her face. She muttered her annoyance, but the words froze on her lips as one does when they stand in a basement just at the stroke of midnight, when ghosts are a real possibility and witches live next-door.

_I closed the window this morning. _

The wind had flow in too much for her taste, and she had shut it that morning, before going to make breakfast.

Her hands trembled, and she grabbed her ebony shirt to steady the vibrations, unsuccessfully.

_He's dead. Someone came in and kidnapped him. _

_No, it's fine. He went out for a walk._

_He ran away._

_He's getting you a present _

_You drove him away._

_You're paranoid._

The train tracks collided with each other, and she clutched her own shoulders. If she stopped quivering, there was no reason for fear. If only she could hold her body still. If only her frame stopped shuddering.

It wasn't working.

She sucked in a breath, too long yet too short in the same moment and ran out of the bedroom, onto the back porch, and hopped over the railing. Her feet sunk into the dry sand as minuscule rocks caught and snagged at her skin, but she moved to fast to notice, the wind carrying her along the shore of the beach.

As if someone had seen her distress, felt sorry for her, and decided to act, she spotted Emmet across banks.

She had run half the distance when dread washed against her ankles with the salty water and realized he wasn't alone.

A few feet closer. He wasn't only in company, but the second person wore auburn, milky-chocolate hair, waved with beachy curls past _her _shoulders.

By the time her feet skidded to a cutthroat stop in the jagged sand, the _her _he was in company with stood, in his arms, kissing him as the waves crashed at their feet. Her plain stature meant nothing to Lucy. She could be a supermodel or a homely hermit, it mattered nothing if she had Emmet.

"Lucy?" Emmet broke away from the woman. His words muffled in her ears as she stared, trembling. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

Flares and flames of azure, juniper and wine danced before her eyes. The once vivid sound of the waves mumbled, moaned, and muffled, until etching itself out of her hearing. A bucket of ice spilled in her chest, expanding and freezing every vein, bone, and muscle until her fingertips shuddered.

"Em…" The wind rushed against her icy, numb lips.

The notion that the woman began speaking to Emmet hardly rang any reaction in Lucy. A constant. He was her constant, her steady hum, and now, like ripping out the ground from underneath her, this woman had stolen away the only man she had ever really loved.

Why didn't she stay in the house?

Why did she have to wake up?

Why was Emmet doing this to her?

Her jaw slackened, and a transparent, unrelenting force tugged on a rope choked around her ankles. "Emmet…"

"Lucy, look…" He shrugged as if she was nothing, as if she hadn't given him her heart, as if it all mean nothing to him. "…Gail and I…we go way back."

_No, no, no. Not again. Don't lose him again. _

Her fists clenched and pressed into her sides. Her eyes clutched shut. A jerk hitched in her lungs. When she opened her eyes, the white overtook the black of her irises. She set her feet in a battle stance in the sand, no longer serrated and ragged, but numb and frozen. "Emmet…" her voice rubbed against the waves she could not hear.

Pushing Gail behind him, Emmet marched in short, bursting strides until he stood before Lucy, jaw set and shoulders locked. "Say it, Lucy."

"Don't leave."

The crashing, the vibrating, the ruby blood in her eyes melted. She tilted her weak head, weighing nothing less than a thousand pounds, up to his eyebrow-raised, confused countenance. "Emmet, I love…I love you." Before she could think better of it, before her senses could kick in, before anything could be done to stop her, she reached forward and grabbed his shoulders. "Please, I don't know what to tell you, but I…I love you! I can't lose you!"

The hard outline of his clenched jaw unhinged, and, for a moment, his cold form faltered. His voice rubbed and clashed in conflict, "I…Lucy…you, me, it's just…"

"What about us, Emmet? Remember this?" She grasped his hand. It was warm, soft, and caring against her palm. "Remember when all you wanted was to hold my hand?" The sob hitched between her words.

Disappointment, the type of disappointment a parent displays in front of a child, flickered on his face. "Remember how you didn't notice me? Remember how you wanted me to change? Remember how you were always better than me?"

Hope crashed from her face, and tears stained across her freckles, as if they were already in the grieving stage and ready to move on.

_No. It's not going down this way._

The attitude Lucy had worked so hard for finally kicked in.

Before he could back away from her, Lucy let go of his hand, grabbed his shirt, and crashed his lips to hers.

Emmet tensed. His hands pushed against her shoulders. The kiss snapped.

She froze, his lips just an inch from hers.

A tear finally crawled down her cheek when he dispelled the space between them.

He cradled her in his arms, and she let her hands rest around his shoulders. He was warm, she noted. Not the type of warm from sitting in the sun or standing on a heater, but the soft, gentle warmth one only gets from having a kind soul, a caring disposition, and loving one with all his heart.

Breaking the kiss off, he paused for a breath. "Lucy…"

The giggle wasn't intentional, she promised herself, as she smiled like a lovesick woman on the rebound. "Yeah?"

His eyes clenched, like someone had pierced his back, and he muttered under angry breath, "I'm sorry."

He tore away from her, grasped her hand one final time, before wrapping his arm around Gail's shoulders. "If it means anything, Lucy, treat the next one better."

"Emmet! EMMET!" Her senses woke up only a moment too late, and the sand drifted, swirled and whirled beneath her feet like a tornado. The ocean collected itself back, and Lucy's eyes darted towards where it should have stopped, but no end hung in her view. The water never returned.

The sand collapsed.

A groaning rumble crashed from behind her. She could hear each individual wood plank, knickknack, doorknob and furnishing burn under sweltering, merciless heat.

The flint, murky sky blurred.

_Wake up._

Lucy reached out for something to hold. Emmet, a railing, ground, anything, but he and every saving grace, every comfort of the last twenty-four hours vanished and crumbled around her. Flames danced, taunted, and cried out from the trees choking her space.

_Stop, just wake up! Just open your eyes!_

Lucy ran. She didn't know where, but she had to run.

_Just…stop…stop it all!_

Her lungs gripped her ribcage, no oxygen existed in her body, and she found her head colliding with the floor and neck crooked, but her eyes were open. The ceiling was not a sky. The walls were not flames. The ground was an artificial, built-floor. Her legs hung, tangled in blankets, on the bed.

_Was it a dream?_

Clammy, flushed, sweat-drenched hands reached up to her hair. Each stroke ran through smoothly. No obstacles, no sand grains, no jagged rocks, no seashells. Her hoodie, soft and dense, hugged her shoulders and wrapped with a searing heat around her form.

_Emmet._

No breath in her lungs, her throat shut and tight, her legs so weak she buckled under her own weight, she managed to climb out of her tangled-mess of blankets and pillows, to the door, and out into the hallway.

No strength remained in her legs, and her feet fell down the stairs instead of stepping as she relied on the railing. "Emmet?!" She paid no mind the silent, common curtesy society had built, that one should not shout in the baby hours of the morning.

Emmet's head shot up at her from the middle of the living room. "Lucy!"

The weary, exhausted buckle of her legs mattered no more, and she collapsed into his arms. He supported her completely. She made no move to stand or hold her own weight up.

Rubbing her back in a steady, warm, careful motion, Emmet wept softly into his fiancée's shoulder, curling his tense arms tighter around her frame. "Lucy, Lucy, I'm sorry. Never again, I'm never leaving you again. I promise."

Without the energy or reason to fight him, she nodded. "Promise me. Never leave me." Her tears stained his shirt and pressed against the crook of his neck, and he cradled her softly, swaying her on the sot in a humming, gentle motion. He tugged gently, and, nearly smiling, she stepped her feet up onto his, like a child.

"I'm sorry, Lucy. I'm going to stop doing so many things without you. I'm sorry." The apology clanked and cluttered in his mouth, stepping over awkward speech and mumbling lips. His face heated under sweltering, unnerving anxiety at the prospect of having something to apologize for. "I'm really sorry, Lucy."

"I'm sorry too." Burying her face into his embrace, she muttered as her rose blush exchanged for a scarlet. "Ems, I don't know what I was thinking, I just…I can't lose you, and I get worried…"

Somehow, some way, though she didn't know how, his kiss here, now, when tears soaked them both and emotions ran haywire, was infinitely better than the one in her dreams.

She could just hardly feel a smile though the kiss, prompting her to wrap her arms, warm and tight, around his neck as he kissed her. Her dream paled in comparison. Now, she could feel his arms tighten around her, and she knew it meant he was protective, caring, kind, and adorably paranoid. Every emotion, feeling, and thought that ran through him coursed through her. She trembled, and he held her to calm her. Delicate. She could lose him at any moment. For one night, even, in an alternate dimension, she wasn't safe from losing him.

"Lucy," Emmet broke the kiss, and looked straight into Lucy's eyes. Did she know? Did she understand how absurd the idea of leaving her was? One thing his dream had gotten right, he regarded, was the sad fact that he was not the most poetic guy in town. "You have to believe me, I would never, never _ever _leave you. Ever."

A grin tugged at the corners of her lips, but she fought to keep a straight face. "Even for Gail?"

His groan, light-humored and through a soft but exasperated smile, broke her warrior-act. "What is it about Gail, more specifically, this fear about me and Gail?" The very thought left a sticky, foul taste on his tongue, and he spotted the pleasure his fiancée took in that fact.

For the first moment, she remained silent. Contemplative. Lucy reached towards his hands, took them in her own, and mumbled, "She's nice."

"You're nice!"

She cocked an eyebrow. "Really, Ems?"

"Lucy, you're super, ultra, adorably nice."

"Ok, now I _know _you're exhausted, you just called me adorable."

"Well," Emmet said, a deciding factor and determined tone in his voice. Before Lucy could even react, he bent down, swept her off her feet into a bridal carry, and began carrying her up the stairs with no hesitation as she laughed. "I do think you're adorable…"

"Emmet!" she shouted through laughter. She never giggled with anyone the way she did with Emmet, when she could laugh out-loud and without a care for how she sounded.

She continued laughing until he carried her into their room, gently set her down on the bed, smiled softly, and knelt in front of her. "I love you, Lucy. You have to believe that."

"I do," she murmured, playing with the edges of his pajamas with a glassy, glazed cover over her eyes. "That won't stop, right? You'll always love me?" Uncertainty and insecurity felt terrible. Her chest tightened against her ribcage, and her feet twisted and shifted in a spell-binding motion, a necessary distraction for the emotions she never wanted to acknowledge.

Emmet sighed. He ran his hands over her arms in a slow, steady, caring movement, his thoughts jumbling and conversing on how they could prove their love to the most beautiful, frustrating woman in the world. "I want to show you something, Lucy. Stay here."

No time existed for her to protest as he stood up, smiled softly, and left the room. She cocked an eyebrow. "Emmet?" Was this his plan? Avoid the question for so long she gave up? Was he going to run out the window to a new woman?

The nightmare once again invaded her thoughts, but this time, she wasn't going to give him a head start. "Emmet, I'm coming in there." She pushed herself off the foot of the bed, but he ran back into the room the moment her feet hit the carpet.

"Wait, here, I wanna show you something."

After her heart stopped boxing against her chest, Lucy nodded and sat next to him on the bed, eyeing a cedar box. Jagged edges and torn corners, along with several marker scratches and dashes, told her whatever was in the box was ancient. "What is that?"

The glassy, damp look in her fiancé's eyes didn't dawn on her until that moment, and her spine straightened without her consent. What was in the box that made Emmet cry?

"Well, it's kind of sappy, just remember that." The longer he held the box in his quivering hands, the longer and harder he regretted ever mentioning it. Again, if he was more poetic, he could have made a beautiful speech, and that would be the end of it. Especially considering it was 3:45 A.M. and he was exhausted.

As she watched, he lifted the lid up, and the box gently let go and fell back into his lap. "It's…it's kind of a box of stuff about us."

No response graced her. Even if she had one, Lucy noted, she probably couldn't have put the words together. "Ems…"

He smiled gently. "Yeah, I know, it's weird. I have a bunch of stuff in here, look, this is the hair-tie you dropped when we were battling aliens." In his hand lay a small, thick, fuchsia hair-tie. "That was the first and only time I saw you with your hair down."

She couldn't help but laugh as he handed her the band. "I remember, that was the first and only time I saw you drool." She nudged him as he flushed crimson. "You saved this?"

"Heh, yeah. I bent down in the middle of the battle and grabbed it. It wasn't very fun trying to explain to Batman why I had a pink hair-tie on my wrist later," he laughed, his eyes blurring with the memory. If he shut his eyes, sat silently, and thought way back to that day, he could just picture his fiancée with her hair down, raging on the battle field like a warrior-princess.

The box shifted in his lap and broke him out of his daydream. "Wait, look. This is a picture of us on our first date."

"We look so young." She smiled softly and ran her hand down his wrist. A gentle, invisible force pressed her head on his shoulder, and she refused to fight it as he leaned into her touch. "Look at you. You look like we're going to get ice cream on your birthday, and there's an alien behind you."

"Hey," Emmet protested. "I was on my first date with you, I didn't care if one alien tried to join in."

She didn't respond, and her eyes fixated on the inside of the box, like when one's body freezes at the sound of banging on the outside of the house. "Emmet, since when were we at the beach?"

"The beach?"

Reaching into the box, she grabbed a small, fanned-seashell, navy blue at the bottom with cool-colored stripes based all around it. "Where did you find this?"

"Uh…" Emmet followed her confusion. As she turned the seashell over in her hands, examining every angle, side, and face, he scooped a small, metal keychain out of the box. "…I don't remember going to New Orleans." The keychain, on one side, read in gold, frosty letters, _I Found my Heart in The Big Easy. _His hand ran over the front as he turned it to its back. The room froze as they read the words, _E & L 4-EVA, _inscribed on the back.

"I'm really confused," Emmet said. He turned to Lucy. "Did you put these in there?"

"No way. You?"

"Nope."

The pair froze, and just as Emmet opened his mouth to offer some reasonable, untrue conclusion, the soot of night dissolved, and vivid, dazzling light danced into the room to a polka.

As the pair shielded their eyes from the light and muttered their confusion, Unikitty, from the doorway, cocked her head. "Ok, I have a few questions. Why are you two sitting with an old box at four in the morning, why is the couch a mess, and why do you both look like you've been crying?"

Emmet turned to Lucy, a smile tugging at his mouth. His hand wandered across his lap until finally finding hers, and their palms met, warm and familiar, and he let the smile overtake his lips. "We're ok?"

Leaning forward, she met him in a soft, warm, lingering kiss. "Foreva."

Unikitty's eye twitched. "That's not an answer!"


	16. Lucy's Fairy Tale

**A/N: YO! THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! I'm updating within 24 hours….why? Well, this one's a LOT shorter, and it's REALLY fluffy XD.**

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Stars evaded the oily ocean of the night, and hard as she tried, Lucy could not count them all. The activity normally would have caused a reaction similar to an eye-roll, or perhaps annoyance, but tonight, she needed all the countable sheep, warm glasses of milk, and deep-sleep exercises the internet offered her. Counting the cosmos through her and Emmet's massive, expanded skylight window was her next option, but judging by the itchy lack of sleep that scratched at her eyes, it had not done much for her.

The bed, cuddled, tangled, and soft beneath her, muttered at her to lie still as she turned to Emmet, sleeping soundly on his back with the tangerine blankets tugged and cuddled up to his neck. Despite the miserable lack of sleep, she smiled.

Was it Rex? Lucy supposed he was a possibility. The alternate-timeline-Emmet had certainly not done her much good in the past few weeks. Some nights, after terrors and horrific dreams, choked with images of Rex stealing Emmet's place, Rex dying, Rex killing Emmet, and every disturbing visual in between, she could only grip her (newly promised) husband's hand as he slept, pleading through her own tears for the thoughts to dispel. Would they ever go away?

Her own cruelty was a different story, one filled with knifes sharpened to an infinite point stabbing her in the back and tortuous death. Had she, after years of loving, really asked Emmet to change? Had she been that cruel? It reflected into her memory like a murky image in blurred water, like a dream one had years and years ago, only remembered by someone's forced hand. She loved Emmet. With all her heart. She loved everything about him. If he had changed, where would they have gone? Would things have ended between them?

It seemed, she noted, he gripped her hand back as she clutched onto his. She needed him. Desperately.

No breath grew large enough to stay in her lungs. If she inhaled for ten seconds, it gave her a moment's worth of air, and she began panting beneath her shudders. It was the middle of April, why was she quivering like winter had flown in through an open window?

"Ems." She tugged on his hand. No matter if he needed sleep, her husband ought to comfort her when she needed it, even as the scent of her own tears crept into her gasp. "Emmet, wake up."

After a few harder, tough jerks, his form trembled, his eyes fluttered, and he peered at Lucy through hazy eyes and misty night. "Lucy? What is it?" His voice fell like a flat note to the sweltering bed. "Are you ok?"

"Tell me a story," she pleaded. Inside the walls, only their walls, she could pretend she was an innocent, trembling child, or a weak princess who needed a knight to protect her at all times. She could pretend. He didn't judge her. He understood. "Please?"

Even as midnight dawned in physical, tangible color, so thick one could reach out and draw patterns through it, Lucy could see the sympathetic smile lacing her husband's lips. "Can't sleep?"

A light fire weaved through her freckles. She shook her head.

"It's ok, come here."

The words murmured and strung out through the air as he drew her into his embrace. Her head rested on his chest, and his arms pressed against her back, where she could cuddle within him, as if he was a shield of armor through which no terror could break.

Her eyes fluttered closed, and even his presence, knowing he was awake, comforted the whining, pathetic voice inside her head. She curled her arms up around herself, tucked her legs together, and allowed him to cradle her. "Thanks."

_You were supposed to protect him._

The stronger voice, the harsh bully, the doubter, the one who knew her every weakness and didn't believe she had strengths, ignored Emmet's comfort.

_You hurt him. After everything, you ignored him, and he turned into a monster._

_Because of you. _

No. She wouldn't listen to it.

"Lucy?" Emmet's voice rose, and he gripped around his quivering wife. "Are you ok?"

_You killed him._

"Tell me a story…" She gripped around his chest and murmured into him, "Please."

The inflection in her voice shattered against the sob thrashing in her throat, whacking and bombarding every quaking breath. Was it true? Had she practically killed her boyfriend? She had hurt him. That was enough. If she had caused him pain, if she had taken something from him, if she had betrayed him, then she might as well have killed him. She killed his personality.

"Once upon a time, there was a very lonely, average construction worker."

Lucy's head shot up to look at her husband, but he brought a warm hand to her cheek to calm her, sweetly massaging her shoulder. His dark, clouded eyes bore affection, caring, and love as he went on in a low, soft tone, "His name was…Everett." He paused, smiled down at his wife, who uttered a trembling smile. "One day, when he was about to go home from work, he met a beautiful, amazing, perfect woman. She saved him from almost getting shot in half, which he was pretty glad about. Something about coming with her if he wanted to not-die."

Her heartbeat, throbbing like an open wound, settled from her mind and into her throat, where she finally found the room to suck in a breath. It jolted her, at first, how much air she had missed, but Emmet's kiss on her hair spoke a sweet lullaby into her ear. "Keep going," she murmured, nodding into his chest.

The summery, tender force of his hug continued. "Well, the woman's name was Lucille, but she told him it was…" he paused, yet she did not stir, simply waiting in silence. The sound of his own heartbeat drumming in his chest steadied her own, like setting a watch against a reliable friend's clock. "…Destiny. Well, he found out she had a boyfriend. That made Everett kind of mad."

As his tale took a not-so-pleasurable turn, Emmet curled his arms tight around his wife. "Anyway, Everett figured he lost her, especially when he accidently led the bad guys to Cloud Crazy Land. Lucille and the whole gang saved the day though, and they dove into the water. That didn't work for long. Eventually, their friend, Iron Mustache…"

Lucy broke the still, glassy silence of the night with a gleeful, piercing laugh, and Emmet giggled with her. "Iron Mustache?" she laughed, hugging herself against him. "You need to work on these fake identities, _Everett_."

"…saved them." Emmet shot a teasing look down at his wife. "They went to Vice Admiral Marketing's tower. Everett and Lucille went inside, and Everett almost got to hold her hand, but her boyfriend, Ratman, interrupted. Everett was really worried about Lucille, especially when they got captured. Everett knew he had to save everyone, but he didn't know how. So, after their master, Litruvius, knocked some sense into him, Everett decided to–"

"Skip this part."

"Huh?"

Lucy tugged on the edges of Emmet's pajamas, her breath hot, yet finally back in her throat where it belonged. She reached up, pressed a warm kiss to his cheek, lingered for a moment, then cuddled back into his arms. "I don't like this part. Skip to when you come back, and I see you again."

"Ok," he replied. His hands rubbed in steady, slow circles across her back. "Well, Everett got back to Lucille. He attached the Piece of Rebellion, and the building exploded. He was ok, and he landed right by Lucille."

"This is my favorite part," Lucy murmured. Drowsiness overtook and melded with her words, dragging and drowning them into her sleep. She snuggled into the heat of her husband, the blankets, and the bed, the type of tender warmth one only received by cuddling for a lengthy, carful amount of time, when space seems to slow down just to watch the affectionate scene.

"Mine too."

Hugging his wife, lazy and weary to his chest, Emmet continued, "Lucille jumped into Everett's arms, and after she broke up with Ratman, they _finally_ held hands."

Lucy yawned, and her heart, finally cuddled comfortably into her chest, hummed in sync against his. "And?"

His lips in a kiss against her hair, he mumbled, "And they lived happily ever after."

Smiling, she reached up with what alert nature remained, pressed a warm, tender kiss to his lips, and whispered, "Thanks, Emmet."

"No problem. Feel better?"

"Mmmh, yeah." She clung her arms against him and nodded into his chest. "A lot better. I love you."

"I love you more."

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**A/N: SPOILER! Next chapter, Emmet has a hard time sleeping: Guess what tale Lucy will give him! (hint hint, this story is no longer in theaters, but available on DVD)**


	17. Emmet's Fairy Tale

**A/N: Well, time for some more sugary, chocolatey fluff! Thanks for all the reviews, and what the heckie, 99 reviews, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? You guys are the BEST! Hope you like this one! Btw, the fake names for this one were HARD, I'm sorry if it's terrible but giving Watevra a fake name isn't as easy as you'd think. THX!**

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"We're going to be fine, you know that, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Will you stop looking so terrified?"

At Lucy's request, her boyfriend attempted to diminish, or at least hide, his frightened expression. She watched out of the corner of her eye as he bit down on his cheek to keep his teeth from chattering, stuck his hands in his pockets to keep them from trembling, and hugged his knees to his chest. The frigid, rushing wind nipped and snapped at him with a harsh whip, and he curled into his chest tighter, though it provided the warmth only one cloth would.

His girlfriend from beside him, forced her eyes from the dying, quivering fire to him. Knots and spears clashed in the pit of her stomach. Logic and reason meant nothing to them, even as she shouted in her mind she had no reason to comfort her boyfriend. They _would _be fine. Unikitty and the others were coming for them. Getting lost meant nothing.

As Lucy breathed in the musky, hot, sweet scent of the fire mixing with nature, she knew she had to believe it, if not for her sake, for his. She could tremble with fear. She could lose hope. She could forget what it meant to believe everything would be alright, if only he continued hoping. One of them had to be ok.

"Emmet?" she whispered, nearly stopping at the soft, gentle tone of her own voice. She reached a hand out towards his shoulder, and he shot a look at her the moment before she touched him, and she froze. "Are you ok?"

The tears in his wide, weary eyes told her he wasn't.

It was too much to take. "Come here," Lucy instructed, gentle in tone yet strong in words. She reached out and wrapped her arms around him, and he uncurled slightly, looking up at her with the eyes of a child as she brought him into her embrace. "We're going to be ok. I promise."

No answer returned, and Emmet merely clung his arms around her petite waist, trying and failing to hide the tears around his eyes. He was warm around her, she noted, as strange, foreign heat crept into her face and highlighted around her freckles. She smiled softly down at him, brushing and curling his hair in her hands, like how she imaged other women did with their boyfriends. If only she could be caring like they were. "Your hair's soft," she murmured, unafraid to be embarrassed yet embarrassed to be unafraid.

Again, he either didn't want to respond, or couldn't, and instead hugged her tighter, trembling and quivering into her frame. Her arms rubbed down to his back, and she leaned her head against the rock beside her in hopes an owl would descend and tell her exactly how to make her boyfriend feel better. Goodness knows she was never the 'healing' or 'comforting' type, no matter what Emmet believed.

"Do you want me to tell you a story?" It was perhaps the only memory of what the kindest people had done for her in her life, and if mere hugging did nothing, this had to work. She had nothing else.

Finally, Emmet looked up at her. His lips quivered with a silver, ghostly veil, and his bloodshot eyes darted from her to the shivering, whistling woods around them. "Y-yeah…"

She smiled softly. "Alright, I've got one." She hugged him close, rubbing her hands in a steady, warm motion along his back. "Once upon a time, a boyfriend and girlfriend…Elliot and Lily, were stuck in the apocalypse." Hoping for a reaction, any reaction, Lucy looked down to her boyfriend, whose trembling had at least quieted some to hear her story. She smiled, pressed a quick kiss her his forehead, and continued, "Well, Lily wanted Elliot to change, she was worried if he would survive, even though she didn't realize how much she would miss him if she changed."

The death-grip he held around her softened, and he nodded for her to resume. She imaged this was the first time he heard her 'side' of the story, and that idea intrigued her, for a reason she didn't need to know. "Well, the aliens from the…Sibleeng System kept coming. One time, everyone hid from them, since this alien was too much to fight. Elliot had always tried to be nice, but that didn't always work." Lucy looked down at her boyfriend, hoping against reason that he had fallen asleep, but to no avail, he still stared up at her with wide, teary eyes. She smiled and cuddled against him with a sigh. "Anyway, the alien, Colonel Sweet Disaster, tried to take five of Elliot's friends. Even though everyone tried to stop her, she took them." Her voice softened despite her own resolve to keep emotions, feelings, and regret out of the story, and she tightened her arms around her boyfriend for warmth, comfort, and safety. "Lily really missed Elliot, she had hardly been apart from him for years, and she didn't like not having his sweet optimism around her."

"Really?"

Hearing another voice, even coming from him as he clung to her, kicked her heartrate up. "Huh?"

As if he realized what he had said, Emmet shrunk back, looking down to the dusted, hard, cracked ground. "I…I didn't know you felt that way…"

Smirking, she shrugged. "Hey, I didn't say anything about me, I'm talking about Lily." After a moment of his smile, she relented, and held him close. Her lips against his hair, she murmured, "Of course I felt that way, Ems."

"Thanks."

"Should I keep going?"

"Yeah."

Before she began, Emmet resumed hugging her, this time avoiding a death-grip. His soft, warm hug around her waist brought a rose tint to her cheeks, and she nearly asked him what it was about her that made him love hugging her so much, but thought better of it when he breathed deeply, shut his eyes, and readied to listen to her voice again.

"Well, Colonel Disaster brought Lily and her friends to a sparkly, girly, princess-worthy castle, where they met Queen Watevra Canbi, who–"

"Canbi?" Emmet broke into the story, laughing with the light sweetness of a child, yet a smile that made his girlfriend's heart melt daily.

"Hey, you tell the story, you make the names," she retorted, smiling. "Anyway, the Queen sang them a really wacky, sorted song that everyone but Lily believed. Lily and her friends were taken to a spa treatment, where they everyone found out–"

"–pretty hair," Emmet finished, twirling and curling his girlfriend's teal-and-fuchsia locks.

Lucy smiled, leaning into his touch. "Yeah, pretty hair. After barely escaping a terrifying, catchy pop-song, Lily hopped on the bottom of a party-bus, where she saw Elliot." Pausing, Lucy's words grew to a murmur, and her arms tightened without her knowledge around her boyfriend. His warmth outweighed the fire, in safety, tranquility, and familiarity. She inhaled, and the sweet, memorable scent of sugary wind, an aroma she had always wondered about, flew into her lungs and quieted the last frazzled parts of her mind. "Even after only being away from him for a little while, seeing him again made her the happiest she had been in a long, long time."

Even by the waving, rippling wisps of the dancing fire before him, she could just translate the strawberry fluff on his cheeks from the tiger orange the fire cast on them. His eyelids fluttered, like a child, and he curled around her, resting his head on her shoulder, tucked under her chin. "Anyway, she flew through space down to Elliot, and they hugged." Lucy waved a hand before Emmet's face and whispered, "Emmet?"

No response met her, apart from the steady hum of his rising chest.

"She had never loved him more than that moment, even though she could never tell him," Lucy continued. "Unfortunately, the bad guy of our story, Rex Hazardest, makes an appearance here. Lily didn't know what to think, but that wasn't the worst part. Elliot told Lily he had changed, and it was all for her."

A sigh ran over her lips, and Lucy brushed a thin wisp of his hair out from his face, as if he was an infant she had failed to protect. "She hated that. She hated that he had even tried to change, even though she didn't know why yet." A warm, lingering kiss on his temple followed. "The three of them made a plan, and again, Lily never told him this, but she was really proud of Elliot for that little plot of his. She knew she would tell him someday, though. When she wasn't so worried about what people thought of her. But when he hesitated…when he didn't answer if he trusted her…that scared her."

She hugged him tighter to rid her lips of the glare, the glare she had not approved of. "It had always been that one look, one word, and he would do whatever she said. She…she didn't understand, she didn't know why he didn't trust her." Lucy sighed. Now she knew. That was the hardest and best part. "She was never so sorry."

Shaking her head, Lucy continued, rubbing her sweet, sleeping boyfriend's back in steady circles, "Well, they all split up, which was probably a mistake. Lily battle against Sweet Disaster, and after discovering a thing or two about perspective and 'other side of the story', she made it up to the temple. Elliot didn't know though, that Rex was the bad guy. She tried to tell him."

Lucy tightened her arms around Emmet, hugging him against her and taking his hand in hers. "She didn't like what he was becoming. He had always trusted her. She pleaded with him to stop…but he kept going. His hand had never felt so cold." A shudder rippled through Lucy's veins, and she sat up against the rock, sucking in breath after breath of the musky fire, careful to hold her boyfriend close against her. A scratching sob rising in her throat, Lucy whispered, "Elliot did it, he broke the temple, a glare on his face that reminded Lily too much of her own. Rex stole Elliot away from her, and she went flying. Armamageddon fell like acid rain on top of them, and Lucy and all her friends, except Elliot, were thrown into The Bin of Stor-Age."

It hurt.

She didn't want to finish the story.

She couldn't think of catchy names.

She couldn't breathe.

Why had she not realized how painful this all had been? Had she just shoved all the thoughts out for her own safety? Even sitting with her boyfriend, cuddled in front a fire, she doubted if her own story had a happy ending. It had all been so fragile. If one other thing had gone wrong, they all could have died. She could have lost Emmet.

"Lucy?" Emmet's mumble, drowsy and dense, broke into her harsh, rapid breathing. "Can you finish the story?"

_No._

_I can't._

_I'm afraid._

"How long have you been awake?" she asked, mumbling into his hair, trying to hold every bit of his warm familiarity with her until the end of time.

"Dunno…can you finish it?" He snuggled deeper into her arms. Helpless. She was totally, irresistibly helpless to him, his touch, his smile, his plea, him. He asked, she gave. He trusted, she came through. He loved, she loved right back.

She had to finish it.

For him.

"Lily had lost hope," Lucy whispered, her voice damp and choked. "But…so had everyone else. She didn't have Elliot, or anyone, to bring her spirits up, or tell her everything would be alright. That was Elliot's job, and he wasn't there. She had to believe by herself."

After a brief look to her boyfriend, who smiled softly against her, her heart fell through the murky, defeated anguish burning in her throat, and back down into her chest. "Maybe it was Elliot, maybe it was the thought of losing him. Either way, Lily trusted that it would all work out, and slowly, everyone agreed. They got out of The Bin of Stor-Age, and Lily ejected herself into space to save Elliot." Lucy chuckled, and for a moment, it seemed Emmet did too. "Now, _that _hug, that was her favorite hug she had ever gotten. Rex disappeared, and, well, you know the rest."

"And?"

Cuddling her arms around her boyfriend, Lucy chuckled. Everything about him filled with warm, tender love, and she kissed across his forehead, his cheeks, and softly, warmly, gently on his lips. "And, what?"

"Please?" he persisted, meeting her kiss.

She sighed through a smile. "And they lived happily ever after."

After Emmet nodded, assumingly content with her story, he murmured, "Thanks, Lucy."

Even his lips were warm, she noted through foggy, drowsy thoughts, as she kissed him. "Anytime, Emmet. I love you."

"I love you too. Can you do one more thing?"

"What?"

"Sing?"

She smirked. "There's always tomorrow, Emmet."


	18. To Hug, or Not to Hug

**A/N: Woah, woah, woah. 103 reviews? I don't even know what to say, I had no idea everyone would like this so much when I started this, and I want to thank EVERYONE who has read and reviewed this, you guys are the best! Onto business, this one is, again, teeth-rotting, sugary fluff. I SORRY.**

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The flickering, glittering lights waving and dancing from the TV grounded Lucy to the real world, perhaps the only anchor attached to her ankle and restraining her mind from wandering into the cosmos. Deep-thinking went hand-in-hand with revelations for Lucy, and while she usually dreaded the realization that she had slipped into a not-quite-broodings session, it always ended well. Always.

Even if confronting it was painful.

Like right now.

Oh, there were harder things to be upset about. She wouldn't even use the word 'upset', maybe she was just concerned. Yes, concerned. A bit concerned. While her boyfriend's arms, wrapped tightly around her fame so her head could rest on his chest, usually relaxed even the darkest, gloomiest, most abandoned corners of her mind, tonight, with the wind howling and whistling a tune from a horror film outside, his warmth did nothing.

She paused her introspective, instead focusing on each characteristic of her boyfriend, a favorite pastime of hers. His hand was warm in hers, he noticed, as she turned it up and over in her grasp. He was used to it, she knew.

A slow, easy breath flowed through her breath, and the scent of chocolate, strawberries, and dust travelled with it. She buried deeper into Emmet's embrace, cuddling her arms around his torso. He didn't mind, she knew.

He was always so warm. Even in the frozen-solid, icy, frigid blizzard of January, where fridges are savannas and the word 'warm' is unheard of, Emmet acted as a portable heater. Yet, somehow, during summer, he wasn't too hot for her to snuggle, he was always perfect. He always held her tightly against him, against his warmth, even when she hugged him in a death-grip. He was alright with it, he had told her.

The sappy scene, one that would have embarrassed Lucy in many situations, snapped for a moment, when Emmet chuckled at the TV. His chest rose and fell in quick succession, and Lucy merely smiled, not at the TV, but at him. He was cute. She, even she, liked cute.

"Emmet?" she whispered, still tightly wound around his middle. She didn't need to look up to know that his eyes had fallen on her, sweet and caring, gentle and loving.

A fuzz drifted over the TV, along with _Paused _typed across it, and Lucy knew she was trapped, trapped into pouring out her heart, again. She always felt better after doing it. Always.

"Yeah?" Emmet straightened, as if preparing for her to interview him, and she followed, though not nearly as officious. She let her frame relax against his, and secretly and silently thanked him for leaving his arm tightly bound around her shoulders.

Shrugging, Lucy turned and gave him a quick kiss, but the action gave her a route, a way out, a slim passage out of delving into her own feelings. She faked a smile, because a real smile was impossible with the terrible twist in her stomach, and replied, "Nothing, it's nothing. I love you."

A soft, warm kiss replaced her words, and she pressed forward to her boyfriend's lips, who accepted her affection with some hesitance. She deepened the kiss, and his arms curled tightly around her. She sighed against his lips. She had won. She had–

"Lucy," Emmet said, a tint of harsh reality in his voice as he broke the kiss A dazed, lovesick struggle crossed his face, but it wasn't nearly enough for her to win over. His voice softer, he rubbed her shoulder and whispered, "You can tell me, it's ok."

After the temptation to try again, to kiss him again, had passed, Lucy sighed and collapsed on the back of the couch. "Fine. You really want to know?"

He nodded. "Uh-huh."

"I want to know why you like hugging me so much." The truth was blunt. Straight-forward and frank, poked into the air. Blunt.

"Huh?" His voice pierced the room, and she didn't have to look to know that he stiffened, as if he, too, regretted that she had brought up such an unsavory topic, one that he had probably never considered. "What are you talking about?"

"Emmet," she said, in the tone of someone who is trying to explain something very simple to someone very dense. She had often used this voice with Batman. "People, especially guys, don't hug me."

"Do you…want me to stop hugging you?" A lull, a pause cracked through his voice, and his stiffened, boarded arms curled around her shoulders, but he hesitated throughout, unsure and jittery. She never should have brought it up.

Leaning forward with a tilt of her head, she pressed her lips against his, firmly and clearly, intent and purposeful, as he hugged her close. She broke the kiss quickly, though her heart and mind ached to continue. "Emmet, of course I don't, I love you hugging me. It's not that, it's just…I want to know why."

"I love you," he replied, shrugging as if explaining something very simple to someone very stupid, with patience and time. "I love hugging you."

How could she make him understand? How could she get him to agree, to say, 'Ah, yes, you're right Lucy. I understand that people have never liked hugging you, and the fact that I do it every day is confusing for you'

Batman.

"Alright, how about this." Shifting to face him, she said, "Guess how many times Batman hugged me, in our whole relationship. And not to hold hands or kiss, but just to hug me."

"Wait, you two kissed?"

"Stay on track, babe."

Shaking off his momentary detour, Emmet sat back in the couch, attempting to give the question deliberate, hard, well-deserved thought, and she watched, trying to guess what every lift of his temple and twitch of his hands meant. After a moment, he replied, radiating total confidence in his set shoulders and smiling jaw, "Three-hundred and sixty-five."

She cracked up laughing.

"How far off am I?" Emmet asked, a chuckle lingering his words.

Lucy smiled in reply, and pecked quick kiss to his lips. "Emmet, you're adorable." She titled her head and raised her eyebrows, having a hard time not enjoying the lovesick look on his face. "Naïve and a little clueless, but totally adorable."

The sweet, crimson blush painted over his face brought a rose hue to her own cheeks, and for a moment, she imagined they were two high schoolers at a drive-in movie, waiting to have their first kiss. Emmet rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding her gaze. "Heh, I mean, I just… how many was it?"

"Try three," she replied, with a purposeful lack of mirth in her voice.

His eyes widened, and while it harbored some jealousy, most of it appeared as shock, with a tint of disgust she thought she imagined. "Like, three a day?"

"No, three altogether."

"Like, a week?"

"Emmet, three _in our whole dating life. _We dated for a year, in that time, Batman hugged me three times."

Before she could back out of the trench of emotions and feelings she had drudged herself into, now sticking to her boots and hair, Emmet reached forward, grabbed her by the waist, and hugged her close against him, where his head could rest in the crook of her neck. While she had expected to tense at the sudden motion, she only melted into him, curling her arms tightly around her neck. It felt strange to let all her emotions go, like this, even with him. Perhaps it was because she was vulnerable. She had told him everything, and now he had her. He had her heart in his hands.

Cuddling around him, practically resting on his lap, she berated herself for shedding a tear at his touch. He smelled nice; like dust and dirt from work, sugar and flour from baking, and salty water from when they had walked along the beach.

"I just…" Emmet's voice, soft and melodious against her shoulder, murmured softly, "…I don't think anyone should go that long without hugs."

Her laugh, stifled but rolling like light thunder against his shoulder, echoed softly in her ears. "You gonna go hug Batman next?"

"Sorry, that's Watevra's job."

Again, her laugh rolled right along with his.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, still smiling, the type of smile of determination not to cry. "I'm just…I was never used to being hugged before you, y'know?" A blush washed over her freckles like clear, pristine water as he pressed a warm kiss to her cheek, and she clung her arms around him. He was warm.

"Don't be sorry, I know." His hands rubbed against her back, up and down, up and down, warmer and more comfortable than her hoodie, more familiar than her own breath. He understood her, even as she poured out ugly, confusing, terrible truths and questions, things no one would ever listen to with a straight face. She could come to him with anything, and he would never care or judge her. He was safe. Protective. He was the only one she would relax and cuddle with, whisper and act sappy with, or behave in anything less than her reputation called for.

Once more, she curled up in his arms, letting a soft sigh breathe into his shoulder, as he cradled and hugged her. "You know what, Emmet?"

He brushed a soft kiss to her lips. "Yeah?"

"I really like being hugged."


	19. A Bump in the Smoothest Road

**A/N: YO, thank you guys SO SO much for the reviews, y'all are the best! And UGH, I am SO SO SORRY for such a slow update, I took a mini-hiatus, and then I kept switching out ideas, so this took FOREVER, especially when I was busy updating Remembering You and Fondest Heart. This is TheSwedishMinifure's request, sorry it took FOREVER. BTW! I have a poll up about what to do after getting this thing to 25 oneshots, and it's at a tie and idk what to do LOL. (Also, I personally believe they kissed at the end of LM1 cause if you zoom in and yeah, but for this, let's say they didn't ok I'm leaving) Ok, THANKS!**

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"Pretty please? Pretty pretty pretty please?"

"Emmet…"

The rough grains of sand, pelting Emmet from every side at tornado-speeds one minute, fell into a lull, and he used it to its fullest, wrapping his arms around his thin, warrior girlfriend, the light of his life. He liked the term 'warrior girlfriend', not that he would ever tell her so. He had a head to keep attached to his body.

However, Emmet was nothing if not persistent.

"You can't stay here all day, right?" His meager argument tagged along with his hand, reaching for her tool to gently pry it out of her hardened, never-again-manicured hand, the one with grease stains and scented with gasoline. From behind, as she silently looked at him out of the corner of her piercing, suspicious, diamond eyes, he could breathe in the scent of her hair. Sometimes, if he closed his eyes, he could pick up traces of coconut.

"Can and will," Lucy replied, stealing the rusted wrench out of his hands. It clenched around a tarnished bolt, attached to eroded metal, attached to a corroded car, sitting on the bleak but clean ground. Compared to anything, Lucy was beautiful, but comparing her to the atmosphere of Apocalypseburg, she was an angel from Heaven. "If aliens attack–"

Uncharacteristically, he cut her off, even as his gut burned and hollered out at him for doing something so foolish. "I know, I know, we can't do anything, because of the aliens." His arms left her waist, and he collapsed to the ground, sending smoky dust up into the air. His legs kicked a jagged, cloudy pebble before him, and it bounced along the rough, scratched terrain until halting, far off enough to see, but much too far for him to walk, especially if Lucy was going to 'keep an eye on him' as she had put so tastefully.

She protected him.

He was alright with that.

Most of the time.

As he stared out at the stretched, malleable ocean sky, the one bright spot of the world, a kind, warm hand cupped his shoulder, followed by his girlfriend sitting next to him, finally without a wrench in her hand. He turned to look at her, and something, be it his heart or lungs, lifted in his chest at the sight of her soft, gentle, tender smile. "What do you want to do?"

"Really?" He shoulders lifted, and his face lit like a candle against the cloak of a gloomy, uninhabited cave.

Nodding, she slipped her hand in his, curling her grip around him, tight and sure. "Yeah. We'll go on a date, like regular, non-apocalyptic couples, right?"

Unable to hold back, Emmet reached forward and grabbed his girlfriend in a tight hug. "I love when you say we're a couple."

"Me too. Now, I'm going to go wash off at least half of this muck, then we'll go, ok?" A certain calm understanding coated her voice, like a parent who had just made a deal with a very upset, very pathetic, but very adorable toddler. Emmet supposed, in many ways, he was like a toddler, at least in Lucy's eyes.

After giving a quick peck to his cheek, Lucy walked off, leaving Emmet a blubbering, stuttering mess.

"Bye, Lucy…" he waved with a hand weighing a thousand pounds and eyes choked with pink, sparking hearts. He brought a hand to his wrist, only to find his pulse drumming back at him like it hated his guts and wanted him to know. What was Lucy doing to him?

Well, he didn't have much time to contemplate, he had flowers to pick from whatever non-bomb infested area he could find. This was also one of the few times Lucy had left him practically unsupervised, which was odd, and a little tempting.

As he walked through angry pedestrians, enraged citizens, and dangerous friends, Emmet thought back, as he often did, to when he believed Lucy had either exercised her greatest hate for him, or her greatest 'like', because he didn't believe she loved him. Not yet.

_"Emmet, duck!"_

_"Get down, Emmet!"_

_"Emmet, if they don't kill you first, I will!"_

_After another battle, one he had not prepared for nearly enough, Emmet walked by Lucy's side through the gentle, dancing glares of the sunset, perhaps the only beautiful thing the apocalypse could not touch. Well, not counting Lucy. "Sorry," he mumbled, his head hanging and body washing vile around in his mind._

_"It's ok," Lucy replied. "War isn't really your thing, huh?"_

_"Nope, never has been." Emmet chuckled slightly, shrugging his shoulders at the first sign she didn't hate him. "I like building stuff."_

_Lucy nodded, smiling, but her eyes focused on the sidewalk in front of her like it too was a pathetic burden she needed to carry. "Emmet, you know I lo–care a lot about you, right?" He would never tell her how relieved he was to hear the urgency, the clearness, the definite promise in her voice. He nodded for her to continue, "Well, that means I don't want you to die."_

_Finally, she shot a look at him, one of his favorite looks she could give him. Her dirty, knotted hair fell half over her eye, her freckles lit up against the sunset, and she gave him a gentle, half-smile. He loved that look. The look that said, 'You're adorable, you know that?' It was his favorite look, among others, most of which he imagined, ones that involved the word 'love'_

_"Heh, I wouldn't want me to die either." Before he lost the nerve, before the idea passed him over, before he thought better of it, Emmet reached down an inch, grabbed Lucy's hand, and held it tight in his, like she would run away if he didn't. Like she would leave. Like she didn't really like him, like she didn't really want to be with him, and she was just planning on when to make a run for it and get away from him. _

_His hand tightened around hers._

_"I'm not going anywhere, y'know?" Lucy laughed gently, like she wasn't sure whether he would laugh with her. _

_Where he could have responded with, 'I know,' he only nodded. He didn't know._

_"Are you ok?" _

_"Yeah," he replied, nodding and smiling, just like he had done so many times when she asked him that question. _

_After a moment passed, a moment where Lucy most certainly did not believe Emmet, she whispered, under her breath like it was a secret, "I don't want you getting hurt, so I'm not going to let it happen. I lov–like you too much."_

_If air could tense up, grab its own muscles, and bite down on its lip, it would have joined in with Emmet and Lucy when that word, that very stupid but very perfect word, almost butted its head into the conversation. Lucy's eyes lit up hotter than they did on the battleground, and Emmet's deer-in-the-headlight eyes did not match the hopeful, optimistic upturn of his lips. _

_"Uh, I like you a lot too, Lucy." His feet shuffled against the grainy, coarse ground, and his ankles locked around themselves as he lifted his darting gaze to hers, finding her soft, sparking eyes already watching him carefully. "But, you probably already knew that."_

_Leaning forward, sending his insides jumping into red-alert, pulling the lever to tense every part of his body, and letting go of a thousand icy, poisonous butterflies in his stomach, Lucy turned at the last second and kissed his cheek. Though it was warm, soft, long, and amazing every way, it was a let-down, no matter how little his knees supported him as she pulled back._

_"So, wanna take me home?" A light trace of ballet-pink curled around her cheeks, and she allowed her hand to cradle around his, warm and trusting. _

_"Yeah, but can I say hi to Unikitty when I'm there? I wanna check on her, she looked pretty mad after that battle." Emmet smiled, and Lucy merely grinned back, tugging him along towards her apartment._

"Hey, watch where ya goin' love-head!" A raucous shout rumbled from above him, and a bare-chested, body-building, wrestling, massive man stared him down like he was a bug, and Emmet simply waved back with a friendly smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Emmet yelled after him. Passing Mr. Nicknames was a common occurrence whenever he wandered to the border of Apocalypseburg, and Emmet found it nice that he had a new name for him every time they crossed paths.

After giving the city a one-two glance, Emmet scampered around the last building, to the back, across a few dry tumbleweeds and sharp-looking plants, and slid into his own private area, one he had made sure to keep alive and well throughout the apocalypse. If the rest of his town wanted to go bleak and sad, that was fine, but he was allowed to have one bright, vivid patch, wasn't he?

The best part, he reflected, plucking a magenta rose, an aqua hydrangea, and three ebony chocolate cosmoses, was that Lucy had no idea where he got these from, and she never would, as long as she always looked so touched when he brought them to her. A secret was alright with him if she smiled like that, with tears annoying her eyes and a blush enveloping her freckles.

His head tilted up towards the sky, and he dubbed that it was about noon, and Lucy was probably almost ready for him. He wasn't totally useless, as he had told Batman a thousand times; he was the only one who could tell time by the sun.

"Get out of the way, kid!" Another man, this one taller and sharper-looking, also carrying more weapons, banged his arm into Emmet's shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll cover that in your anger-management!" Emmet called back, rubbing his shoulder and waving as he walked.

Where he expected empty air after turning around, he met his girlfriend's glare.

"Hey, Lucy! I was just coming to get you!" Without concern for the death in her eyes or the force in her fists, Emmet pulled out the five flowers he had picked, beaming at Lucy. "Here, I got you flowers!"

"You just let that guy get away with that?!"

What happened? Emmet backtracked for a moment. He had asked Lucy to go on a day out with him, she had agreed, he went to get flowers, nope, he didn't think he had done anything wrong, so why were her eyes blazing at him?

"Aw, he's just a little mad, is all! I've been helping him work it out every Thursday, last week we actually made some progress, he smiled at me!" Pride radiating off his face for miles, Emmet grabbed his girlfriend's cold, unmoving hand, gripping it as if he could sweeten it back to life.

She yanked it back.

"You can't fix everyone with a smile, Emmet. Sometimes you just have to punch people back, call them a name, and go on with your life! What if you get hurt?"

Emmet had a feeling her question wasn't so much that she cared about his wellbeing, but that she was using his lack of defense as ammunition.

"I'll be ok, Lucy, don't worry about me!" Again, he reached for her hand, like the monkey in a cage who never learns that touching the edge of the bars means getting electrocuted. She tugged it back once more.

His shoulders dropped. "Are you ok?"

"No."

Emmet had known Lucy to have three sides. Her middle side, the one that was easily provoked, defensive, but a generally fun person to be around, was the one she used most commonly. She also had her soft side, when she would tell him about her past, cuddle him, and whisper sweet things in her ears.

This was not either of those sides.

"Are you ever going to learn?" Her voice rose above the clanking of men's metal tools and women's armor, combatting against the fuzzing of his hearing and the quaking limp in his shoulders. Frenzied, frustrated rage shook her frame as she shouted, "You can't be nice to everyone, they're not all going to be nice back!"

"You were!"

Even the hardened citizens gasped.

After shock, momentary shock, dissipated, an attitude remained, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "What was that?"

The flowers dropped to the pavement as he grabbed her hands in his, and though she tugged back, he held her fast. "You! Lucy, when we first met, you weren't…you…you didn't like a lot of stuff! But I got you to open up, by being nice! You can't change the world by punching people and never being kind!"

"And _you _are going to get killed if you keep acting this way!"

"Acting what way?!"

"All _stupid!" _

"I thought you liked me the way I am!"

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't anymore!"

No.

Oh no.

She should not have said that.

She didn't mean it.

It wasn't true.

Vitruvius, a long time ago, had once told her that no matter how many times you apologize for something, he person will never forget it if it's truly hurtful, so she better be careful what she says.

Lucy had forgotten that rule.

"Emmet, I didn't…" she tried to speak, but that attitude, the voice, the darkness, it had all scampered back to where it came from, just as scared and frightened as a little girl, leaving her without a shield and without a defense. "…I didn't mean–"

He opened his mouth, it fell shut, and the only reply she got was a tear resting by his eye and the most betrayed look she had never seen.

Again, he tried to speak, but as the citizens watched like eager football fans, he shook his head, clamped his lips closed, and took off running into the mess of the city.

"Emmet, wait!" Booing, hollers, names and insults followed her as she chased after him, a bullet through a crowd, eyes on the one vivid, bright piece of orange in the world. The one thing she looked for in battles, the one color she had to spot every day if she was to go on. Without him, what did she fight for? The buildings, the land? Her own protection? No, she fought for Emmet. She fought for him.

Dark clouds of gray and ebony clouded the crowd as more people flooded the street. Lucy ducked under swinging weapons, hopped over chains, slipped by threats of death and ran through people who could have killed her on the spot. Each time she moved, though, her knowledge of where Emmet was grew smaller and smaller. First, she saw him and followed him, then she followed here he had gone, then she chased where she thought he had gone, until she had no idea where she even was.

Her feet halted in the street, skidding to a stop among the dirt and pebbles, and the crowd dissolved, burning to ashes. The road was clear, Emmet was gone, and all she had to hold for warmth was her stupid pride.

"Did I really just do that?" Lucy collapsed to the ground. Had she really just insulted the man she lov – liked a lot, the one who had saved her life, sacrificed himself, and brightened up her day when she was a total jerk?

A rush of cool, grainy liquid ran down her spine.

She really did it this time.

What was someone supposed to do after insulting a person this bad? Was it even possible to mend the relationship?

She was losing him.

Her vision cracked in two. Her heart gave out. A frozen, numb liquid choked her hands and feet. She couldn't move. She was going to lose him. She would be alone again. The best thing that ever happened to her was going to leave. And it was all because of her. She hurt Emmet. She hurt the only man she ever loved.

As the sun lowered, solemn, like at a funeral, burning with the passion that lay in Lucy for the man who had stolen her heart, she did something she promised that she would never do.

Lucy sobbed like a little girl.

#

The streets of Apocalypseburg at night owned a certain slow, gentle stillness, like a boat rocking on the Italian sea, a mother shushing her infant to sleep, or a countryside in the morning. It was as if the residents, for a few hours, wanted to forget the heck that had fallen on their lives and recall their previous ones, the ones they missed, no matter how well they hid it. On these quiet streets Lucy sat, watching each individual bug fly, listening to each rush of wind blow over her hand, breathed in the scent of dust and dry sand, and felt her heart beat when it could bother to do so.

Emmet had probably gone to her and Unikitty's apartment, telling their mutual best friend about how terrible she had been, and breaking the news that it was over. Even Emmet wouldn't let her get away with this one.

Maybe it was for the best.

As much as the idea burned her throat and scratched her heart, if he was rid of her, Emmet could be happy. He wouldn't have to worry about his own girlfriend insulting him, humiliating him, or knocking him when he was down.

If she loved him, didn't she owe it to him to let him go?

Her fist cracked the pavement.

_I don't want to let him go._

Maybe she was selfish. So what? Who cares! She was selfish. She loved Emmet. Why should she have to give him up? If he wasn't going to break up with her, then she sure as heck wasn't going to do it for him.

As brutal, self-dedicated thoughts swarmed her mind, Lucy attention snapped when the one vivid color in the world came into view, when the one bright spot of her life sat on the bench at the end of the street, when the man who held her heart in his hands looked up at the night sky.

Was it wrong, how fast she ran to him? Was it a crime to halt at his side? Was she a bad person for staring at him as he stared right back? Were they both insane as he stood up, and she moved closer until they were just an inch apart, broken by the past and afraid of the future?

Maybe.

"Emmet, I–"

"Lucy…"

Her words caught in her throat, and she made no move to retrieve them.

Emmet shuffled his feet.

"I missed you," Emmet mumbled, his words hitting the air and shattering to the ground. "I don't do well alone anymore, I kinda got used to you walking with me everywhere."

Lucy smiled gently, though her gaze stuck to his feet. "Me too. I didn't even want to go home."

"Me too."

Lucy's eyes shut, forcing out a tear as she clenched her hands against her side. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ever said it. I'm sorry I got mad at you. I'm sorry I was ever mean. I'm sorry I'm such a stupid person, a terrible girlfriend, and a really bad special best friend. I'm so sorry that I said I don't like you, because I love you. I care about you too much and I show it too little. I'm sorry."

Now, if Lucy had been given the time, she would have gone on with her apology speech.

"L-Lucy?" Emmet's hand scrambled for hers, gripped it tightly, and her fist melted into his hand. "Did…did you just say you…lo-love me?"

Lucy tilted her gaze up. Emmet's eyes reflected her own image back at her, tears pooling in his eyes and spilling down his face. "Yeah, I did."

"Uh, Lucy, I…I sorta…I think…" Emmet sucked in a breath, squeezed her hand, and whispered, "I love you."

Those three words. No one had ever said them to her.

Someone loved her. She had a boyfriend who loved her.

Her sheepish, uncharacteristically girly gaze dropped to the pavement, and before she could say anything more, strong, purposeful hands grabbed her shoulders, lifted her gaze, and the next things he could collect, her lips were pressed softly but firmly against Emmet's.

She.

Was.

Kissing.

Emmet.

_Best day ever._

His hands dropped down to her waist, holding her tightly against him, and she let her hands wander around his neck, like a princess in her prince's arms. If Duplo attacked in that moment, if the ground cracked beneath them, if everything went wrong, she still wouldn't let go of him.

He broke the kiss for a moment, breathing in to say something, though he didn't know what, but Lucy pressed forward into another kiss before he could think of anything.

"Emmet, I…I love you," Lucy murmured into the kiss, smiling softly as she did.

As he felt her grin, he smiled in turn, and she started giggling, and as the moon perched above them, everyone on the street heard the laughter of two very crazy, very silly, very permanent special best friends in the deepest love in the universe.


	20. Not Again

** A/N: YO YO YO! Thanks SO MUCH for the reviews, I'm so glad you guys liked the last one! This one is Edger230's request! THANKS AS ALWAYS! :)**

* * *

"Lucy, look! No, over there, wait, that one! Look, it's just…it's so many!"

"WOW, it's so…tall!"

"MY GOSH we have to try that!"

"You're all nuts–_never mind, _I'm going into the chocolate shop, and no one's stopping me."

By the dialogue of the gang that spring evening, most would have assumed they had never seen the heart of a city at night. However, no matter how many times Emmet, Lucy, Benny, and Sweet had experienced the city, downtown Syspocalypstar at night still stole their breath away.

"Are you ok?" Emmet whispered to his girlfriend for the fifth time. He would have tightened his grip around her, but with the way she clung to his arm, he wasn't sure if he could. The oily darkness hardly touched them as the glittering, flickering lights combined into a steady glow from all sides. A brisk, evening breeze rushed in their faces, and Lucy curled tighter against her boyfriend.

"Yeah, fine," she replied. A smile followed her words, and she pressed a quick kiss to her boyfriend's lips. "Just glad you're here, you've been busy lately."

"Guys, look!" Benny pointed ahead, accidently bringing up the hand that Sweet was holding before dropping it quickly. "It's the Syspocalypstar Waterfall, we can climb on the rocks today!"

"Let's go!" Sweet clutched his hand again, and the two took off like a rocket, appropriately.

The elation in Emmet's face was hard to miss, but Lucy tried as he exclaimed, "Lucy, let's go, it sounds fun!"

Emmet tugged on her hand in child-like excitement to walk across the rocks, but she held it at her side. "Emmet, I don't know, why don't we just stay here and let them have their fun?" It wasn't a lie, Lucy told herself. It wasn't. Benny and Sweet needed some space during their almost-but-not-quite-yet phase of a relationship if anything was to develop, and Lucy wasn't going to step on that. She was also sure Emmet was not going to step on the rocks.

A flash of disappointment crossed his face, like popping a balloon. "Aw, but it'll be fun, they won't mind! I used to do it when I was a kid!"

The look on her face told him the discussion was over.

"Fine," he relented, biting back a sigh. It would have been worth it if she had smiled, maybe thanked him, or at least told him why, but she merely rolled her eyes at his reaction and jerked his hand towards the ledge, where they could watch Benny and Sweet tread the rocks.

Lucy rested her elbows on the bar, and Emmet watched her carefully, as if an answer lay in the face of the woman he had fallen so hard for. Something seemed off, he knew it, it had been 'off' for the past couple weeks.

"Are you sure you're ok–"

"I'm fine, Emmet."

The way she snapped his name like it was a curse word sliced his heartstrings in half.

As he shrunk back, dropped his head, and focused all his watering gaze on Benny and Sweet, Lucy only gripped the rail, trying to blur the deep, unquenchable, burning urge to shut her eyes and fall asleep right onto the sidewalk. Holding her eyelids up felt like keeping fifty pounds in one arm as her fingers went numb. The knowledge that her boyfriend was hurting pricked her conscious, and she nearly reached out to his hand, but weariness handcuffed her.

Minutes went by in perfect silence, and while the lovable lilt of Benny and Sweet's laughter reached them from the base of the waterfall, neither felt the need or desire to react to it.

Maybe he was overreacting. Goodness knows he had done that before. Maybe his girlfriend was just having a rough day, and he had pricked a nerve in the wrong way at the wrong time.

Then again, the past weeks had not been kind to Lucy. A snappy remark here, a sarcastic bite there, it all had slowly increased over time. He had tried everything he could think of, cuddling her, kissing her, telling her how pretty she was, all to no avail, whether it was Unikitty's suggestion or not.

"Lucy?" His words jsut surpassed a mumble, and he nearly repeated himself after she did not reply.

"Yeah?"

A pasty liquid went down his throat. "You still love me, right?"

Lucy froze.

Her hand cupped over Emmet's. He was warm. His hand was clammy and his pulse rushed, but it was warm. "Of course I do."

No response but the heaviest sigh he had ever uttered.

The moment crashed, however, when Benny and Sweet zoomed up the stairs, feet soggy and wrists dripping wet. Benny waved his arms wildley as he exclaimed, "That was awesome! Water feels REALLY good, especially when it runs over your hands, almost like riding a spaceship!"

Though no one else on the planet had a response to such a Benny-like sentence, Sweet replied with equal vigor, "That's what I thought too!"

"Hey, Emmet," Benny broke his squealing-match with Sweet and turned to his friend. "Why didn't you guys come?"

The look on Lucy's face was unreadable, but he tried anyway.

"Uh, Lucy didn't think it was a good idea. HEY, let's go check out that nightclub!" Emmet pointed across the street towards a glittering, disco-lit and heavily-photographed nightclub, complete with the types of people no one would want to associate with.

A small spider gripped every one of Lucy's ribs and tugged them together.

"Uh, guys, I don't think that's a good idea." Lucy's protests went largely unheard as Benny and Sweet rushed forward like two teenagers on the rebellion, and Emmet followed in a brisk walk, checking every other moment as she struggled to keep up.

"Come on, Lucy, we've never gone to one of these before!" Emmet reached back and grabbed her hand, tugging her along.

"Ok, ok, ok, fine, " she relented, though every ounce of her bitter, frazzled mind screamed and cried at her to stop. "But just stay near me, alright?"

It only took a few moments to gain access into the club, apparently saving the world multiple times gives you some prestige.

The moment she saw the drinking, the men twice her height, the girls with sharp nails, the music that would have made a rock concert blush, and the blinding lights, Lucy grabbed hold of her boyfriend's wrist and promised herself she wouldn't let go.

"Uh, you ok, Lucy?" Emmet shouted over the voices and music roaring in their ears. "You seem a little pale."

As Sweet and Benny disappeared from her view, Lucy turned her gaze to Emmet, heart throbbing, throat closing, and eyes watering, be it from the lights, music, or her own haywire emotions. "Uh, fine, yeah, just stay by me, alright?"

Whether Emmet agreed to this or not seemed of no concern to Lucy, and she held his arm in an iron grip as they found two seats at the bar. She switched her gaze repeatedly from Emmet to the crowd and back again, as if he would disappear if she looked away for too long.

Emmet took a sip of his club soda, though he could hardly drink with his girlfriend tying herself in a knot across from him. Every bush, every movement, every shout seemed to put her on edge. "Lucy, let's get out of here, you look exhausted!"

He braced himself for a snappy remark.

"Alright, thanks."

The earnest, thankful glint in her glassy eyes told him all he needed, and after bidding their goodbyes to fun-loving Benny and Sweet, high-tailed it out of the nightclub and into the spring air. It had never felt so cool to the pair of special best friends.

Neither said a word. How could they? Other couples had rocky date nights. They had harmonious evenings. Other couples fought and switched between silence and sarcastic comments. They complimented each other and caused a lot of blushing. They weren't like other couples.

"You want to go home?" Emmet asked, quietly and tentatively, as if she would yet again pounce on him.

"Yeah. Let's go home."

The walk to the car was silent.

The drive was silent.

The walk into the house was silent.

Everything was silent until they climbed into bed together, when Lucy finally mumbled, as if the world had pushed her to the limit of into speaking to her favorite person in the world, "I'm sorry."

Emmet turned to face her. She had her arms crossed over her chest, pouting like a child, as the dim, burning light from her lamp barely illuminated her face. Tears had dried and stained on her face, glistening against her freckles, and she rubbed them against her sleeve in foolish hopes he wouldn't notice.

"Don't be. That place was stupid."

Though he knew he would pay the price later, Emmet stretched his hand across the bed and gently lay it over Lucy's. She gripped back wearily.

It took only a moment for Lucy to hike the short distance between them, collapse at Emmet's side, and snuggle into his chest. Her arms linked around him. He did the same. She pressed a slow, warm kiss to his lips. He returned it. She sunk into his arms. He curled around her.

After flicking the light off, Emmet murmured, a small smile on his face, "Sweet dreams, Lucy. I love you."

"I love you a lot more."

#

_You lost him._

_He's gone._

_And it's all your fault._

_The last thing she heard was Emmet's scream._

"EMMET!"

Lucy shot up in bed. Sweat. Cold. No, too hot. _Much _too hot. Her hands quaked. Her shoulders trembled. Everything inside her, her feet, her hands, her chest, it was all too tight. Her heart lay at the top of her throat, kicking and throwing a tantrum. She swallowed to get it back down. It did nothing, just reminded her of the awful, bitter taste in her mouth. In an effort to distract herself, she thought of the headache that wrapped a scalding bandage tightly around her head, but she found this to be worse, and the knockout sent her against her pillow once more.

Had she gotten any sleep last night? More memories of lying awake and drowning in thoughts lay in her mind than any images of her falling asleep.

Her hand reached out to the side of the bed.

Blanket.

The bloodshot blurriness of her eyes shot towards where Emmet should have been, but his space was empty.

No.

Not this time.

She had done everything right.

"Unikitty!" Lucy's voice reprimanded and scolded her for using a crashing volume at such an early hour, but as she collapsed out of bed, tripped over the carpet, swayed as she ran away from her vision and headache, it turned out her voice mattered very little.

The culprit sat in the kitchen as Lucy walked in, eating a donut, and reading from a bridal magazine. "Lucy? You look…" Unikitty scrunched up her nose. "…awful. Are you alright?"

"Where's Emmet?" Lucy's voice scratched and pleaded for mercy. She shot a look at the clock.

_7:08 A.M._

"Oh, he got a call an hour ago that there was an emergency meeting downtown–"

"_–downtown?"_

Unikitty stared at Lucy like she had just thrown a fit because Emmet left a mug out. "–and he didn't want to wake you up, so he left. He figured that since you were so exhausted he'd be back before you woke up."

Through the course of Unikitty's story, Lucy had thrown her hoodie over her top, grabbed the car keys, and snatched her phone. "Ok, thanks. How do you know that?"

The bridal magazine on the counter practically screamed Unikitty's guilty name, along with the mail-in tickets to win a free honeymoon. Unikitty carefully shoved them behind her. "Uh…I was just…up early…one of those things."

Despite her attempts to cover her tracks, Unikitty wasn't sure if Lucy had even seen them. "Lucy, are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm going to the meeting."

"But you went to five last week!"

All Unikitty could hear beyond Lucy's words was the sound of her trembling, heavy steps as she ran towards the door. "I can take care of myself."

The door slammed shut behind her.

Unikitty bit her lip. "Emmet, whatever you do when she gets to you, make her nice again."

#

_"Lucy?" _Emmet's voice flicked the roof with an iron touch when his girlfriend erupted through the doors of city hall, like a student spotting their teacher at the grocery store. Unexpected, and a little terrifying. "What are you doing here?"

_He's ok._

Pushing, shoving, and kicking past the dense crowd between them, Lucy threw her arms around Emmet, hugged him tighter than she imagined he could stand, before her muscles waved the white flag. Every bone fell into the deepest sleep she had ever felt. Though she attempted to lift her arm, just to test it and make sure it still worked, her mind shushed her, whispering it was fine. She heard mumbling. Maybe it was from Emmet.

"Lucy, are you alright?" Emmet's words hardly made it past the pasty fog that clouded Lucy's mind, and she replied to whatever he had said by curling her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder, and moving her feet until she nearly stood atop his. His arms cradled around her back, and something akin to words filled the air. What he said or why he said it, she didn't know, but that was hardly important. It was much more vital that she stay in his warm, protective arms, the ones that were rocking her very close to sleep.

The softest, warmest feeling she had ever felt overtook as Emmet's hands raised up her back, gently fingering the hair at the base of her neck. It tickled. As he held her, like she was a priceless jewel, she melted farther and deeper into his embrace. Her eyes were closing, they must have weighed a thousand pounds. She wasn't going to fall asleep. She would just close her eyes for one minute, a tiny minute, with Emmet, before they went into the meeting together.

There was a moment, however small, when Lucy realized sleep was inescapable.

#

Miserable.

Every single aspect of Lucy's life the moment she woke up felt miserable. A bitter, muddy taste tapped her lips, her mind wanted to wake up but her body wasn't quite ready, she felt too hot but her legs were too cold, and she had no idea how she had gotten into her bed.

Finally, after an intense battle of wills, Lucy won custody of her body and opened her eyes. She was…home. She was sideways in the bed, her head dangerously near falling off the mattress, with blankets tangled up and pillows strewn around as if the pillow fight of the century had taken place.

A smile came over her lips briefly. That pillow fight she and Emmet had done a few years back was one of the best days in her life.

_Emmet._

Just as she scrambled up to either call for him, look for him, or track him down again, Emmet walked through the slightly ajar door with a smile on his face." Hey, Lucy, you're awake!"

At the tone of his voice, Lucy asked, "How long have I been out?"

It was impossible to miss the faintest flash of disapproval and disappointment that crossed his face. Even as he sat down on the bed, sighed with a smile, took her hand in his, and pressed a warm, lingering kiss to her forehead, she knew _something _had killed his optimistic mood, and a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it was her fault.

"About seventeen hours. You passed out in the car, woke up five minutes later, then fell asleep for the whole ride home. I took you here, and you haven't woken up until now. How do you feel?" Emmet said the whole sentence in half a breath.

Lucy winced. Emmet looked like the exhausted one, with bloodshot eyes, a weak smile, and a frame that melted into the bed. "I'm ok," she murmured, snuggling up beside him. "I just didn't get enough sleep last night."

Even without looking at him, Lucy knew that he wasn't buying it.

"Lucy," Emmet muttered under his breath, disapproval and frustration coating his voice. There was a 'You're lucky I love you' at the tip of his tongue, but he bit down on it. For once, as he looked at his girlfriend's hand interlocked with his, Emmet was going to be the tough one, for her sake. "I want you to tell me what's been going on. You haven't been right for the past couple weeks, you won't let me go _anywhere, _you're not sleeping, and you've been taking on way too much. What you're doing isn't healthy, and I want you to be better."

The confession, the confession that he was worried, left his chest a thousand times lighter, and his heart finally began to beat again, the weight of the world no longer clutching it.

His girlfriend blinked a few times, winced, and looked down to her lap. "It's nothing. I'm just working too much."

"Why?" Emmet wasn't letting this go, and they both knew it.

"Emmet, please."

"Lucy…"

Lucy remained silent, but Emmet saw something in her quiet nature, and he only watched as she tucked her trembling hands in her hoodie, hugged her knees to her chest, and let a strand of hair fall across her forehead. Her lips remained sedentary as she admitted, as though her body refused to give in, "I'm scared."

Before Emmet found the space to reply, scalding, boiling tears broke through the lines and poured down her face, staining her freckles. "I…I can't, Emmet. I can't do it. It's…it's too much, every night…I always…I'm terrified…I don't…"

"What?" Emmet kneeled across his girlfriend, lifted a gentle hand to her face, and tried to make sense of the words she repeatedly mumbled. "Lucy, you have to tell me what's bothering you."

A hand creeped out of her hoodie, and she reached to him, gripped his wrist, and refused to let go. "You…I can't lose you. Every single time we do something, I almost lose you. The Abyss, Rex kidnapping you, everything, every time I almost lose you. I can't sleep, I just… I keep seeing you jumping, or disappearing…" Salty, smooth tears turned to harsh, hiccupping sobs, and she clutched his wrist. "…or…or worse…every night I lose you, I won't…I _can't…"_

"Lucy…"

"I…I need to keep you safe." Finally, her eyes shot up to him, bloodshot and exhausted, quivering and glassy. She bit on a sob and choked out, "I…I won't let you get hurt. Not again." The bawling felt good. The sobbing felt terrible. She wanted to cry until she couldn't do it anymore. She wanted to stop crying that instant. She wanted to sleep the sleep that other people had, where nightmares refused to touch her and she merely slept. Would she ever get that again? Would she ever sleep?

"Come here."

Lucy didn't want to open her eyes until Emmet had his arms tightly around her frame, cuddling softly in his arms.

But once she was there, she left them closed. If she opened them, it might all be an illusion. She couldn't handle that.

After weeks of holding it back, choking it down, snapping at everyone, Lucy broke. She sobbed like a baby into her boyfriend's arms. She cried for the day he jumped, when he fought President Business, when the submarine exploded, when they got kidnapped and she was away from him for so long, when Rex tried to kidnap him, when Rex almost killed him, every single time she could have lost him in an instant. In many days and many ways, if she had gotten there a moment later, he would have died.

More crying.

As Emmet snuggled his girlfriend in his arms, she moved into his lap, curling her legs up and nestling into him. He ran his hands over her back, rubbing her shoulders and threading through her hair. She was worried about keeping him safe? Did she know how much he worried about her, how he lay at night waiting for her to wake up, sometimes watching her breathe and just being thankful that she was in his life? "I love you. I love you so, so much, Lucy."

"I can't…I can't sleep, Ems." Lucy's crying grew to sobs once more. "I'm scared, at night and day I get so close to losing you, I can't…I need you…"

"You're not going to lose me."

"_Someday_ I…I will."

The words finally gave Emmet pause. She wasn't wrong. Eventually, their time would come, for each of them. What was he supposed to tell her? How was he supposed to comfort someone who was terrified of death, the most inevitable consequence of all? He was no psychologist, philosopher, he didn't even think too deeply about life unless it was necessary.

"Lucy," Emmet mumbled into her shoulder. "Look at me."

The grip she held on him tightened, but after a moment of patience, she pried herself off, still holding fast to his arms. Tears stained her face, crimson from her sobbing tinted her eyes, and her mascara was smudged, yet Emmet still thought she was the most beautiful, adorable girl he had ever seen.

"I love you." Gently, he pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "I'll never stop. You don't have to worry about _that _type of leaving."

For a moment, the Lucy he knew returned, and she sniffed, pouting slightly. "I'm not. Unikitty wouldn't let you leave, anyway."

Emmet smiled. "I know. But death? Lucy, I'm not magic, I can't stop any of us from dying. You can't live in this constant state of protecting me, because one day, I'm going to go." Emmet breathed in, his own tears choking his words and threatening to spill. "And one day, you will too. You have to live your life, and we're going to save each other plenty of times in the future, I know it, but you can't go looking to save me from some disaster."

The wind ceased rustling, the birds quieted their songs, everything seemed to forget to speak as Emmet lifted a warm hand to Lucy's cheek. "But remember, we won't really be gone. Eventually, I know we'll meet on the other side." Emmet took her hand in his. "Together."

"I'm still scared," Lucy whimpered. Pathetic. She was so pathetic for being scared. Here she was, bawling to her boyfriend, and he was so patient. No one in the world would match up to him, or even come close.

Emmet nodded, and a soft glow, a gentle fire, enveloped Lucy's body as he whispered, "This fear isn't going to go away just like that. But I think you'll start to feel a lot better just because you talked about it. The nightmares will stop too, I know they will."

The fact that he didn't flinch when she griped tighter gave her some comfort. "I hope so."

"And you can wake me up any time they happen, ok? But missing sleep and getting stressed is only making them worse, and you know it." Emmet winced as he pulled back, and he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Your poor mind is running on overtime, Lucy."

"You're sweet," she murmured, running her hand along his shoulders. "I love you. A lot. More than you'll ever know."

A smile overtook his face. The words still gave his heart a run for its money, even after years of hearing them. "I love you too."

The rustling of the wind through their window brought some steady constant to Lucy's mind, and she breathed in the sweet scent of spring, thoughts running from her mind and sulking back to where they had come from. Maybe it would be ok. Just maybe.

"Thank you," Lucy murmured, unsure how to show how much he had helped her. If she tried to make a long speech, he wouldn't believe her. It would just be words. But she had to say something more than the same thank you she gave when he got her breakfast. "Emmet, I…you're…"

Somehow, some way, he knew what she meant. "Don't worry about it."

Emmet carefully kissed her, pausing a moment to feel her smile, and went to pull away, but Lucy held him there for a moment longer. She curled her hands around his, just to give him pause, so she could feel his smile against her lips for a few more seconds. He was still the best kisser she had ever dated.

After several more moments, she broke away, her breath ragged and slightly ticked off at Lucy's mood fluctuations of the past ten minutes. "I feel a lot better," she whispered, smiling softly as she pressed her forehead to Emmet's.

Emmet grinned, and as he went to kiss her again, they both yawned.

The sweetest sound in the world in their ears was the sound of each other's laughter.

"Tired?" Lucy asked, smirking in good nature.

Shaking his head, Emmet fell back against the pillows, eyes already shutting. "Uh, no, not at all."

"Nice try."

Despite his protests about his state of slumber, Emmet gratefully accepted Lucy's decision to curl up in his arms, resting her head on his chest. "You gonna be ok?" His words were paired with a soft kiss to her forehead.

"If you stay here, yeah, I think so."

His girlfriend fell deeper into his arms, and in turn, Emmet sunk into the bed. Sleep treaded the carpet lightly into the room, shushing the pair as Emmet mumbled, "I won't move."

Lucy's words hardly made it out. "Thanks. I love you."

"I love you more."

#

That evening, when dusk had settled and the world had quieted out of mutual respect for the time of day, Unikitty arrived home from a gruesome outing at the craft store. Mutters about never doing it again and ordering online passed through her breath as she stumbled into the house, locked the door, and dropped her bags to the floor. "I'm home!"

No response greeted her, and she raised an eyebrow. Lucy had to be awake by now, right? It was Saturday, Emmet and Lucy's prescheduled time to bake together. Or, Emmet baked, while she and Lucy ate the frosting, stole his stuff, chased him around the kitchen, and acted like general, well-meaning hindrances until he let them have whatever dessert he had made.

The kitchen lay empty and clean, a miracle for that evening, but the bedroom door was slightly ajar. Unikitty poked her head in, and there she found her two favorite people in the world, snuggled up together and snoring louder than she would have ever bet.

Unikitty smiled, tip-toed across the bedroom floor, and curled up beside them. After all, her room was a whole twenty-three feet away, and Emmet and Lucy would never want her to walk that whole way.

Yeah, she was staying right there.


	21. Hidden

**A/N: THANK SO SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! And seriously, MY GOOD GOLLY GOSH (I say this in real life) THIS ONESHOT COLLECTION IS GIVING ME THE HEEBY JEEBES. (I should stop talking.) I've tried so many different things that are now sitting on my computer, until I finally settled on just a fluffy thing here. For some stupid reason my writing just wouldn't work with me on anything else, but I'm glad I got something out! THANKS!**

* * *

"Lucy!"

"One minute!"

Though Emmet's fiancée (he still loved that word with his whole heart, and anyone who was anyone would tell you that) was not the typical woman his father had told him to expect, nor the way his mother had acted, she still retained many qualities that appeared in TV shows and movies. Things of that sort. He didn't mind, obviously. Even though she took several times what it took him to get ready for a party.

"You ok?" He tried again.

"Fine!"

A cough rattled against his throat, as if to say in an off-hand, rough, accent belonging to someone who owned a newsstand on the streets of Manhattan, _She don't sound fine, that's for sure. _And, as Emmet leaned against the hallway and banged his head into the worn paint, he had to agree.

Of course, being privy to Lucy's ever in-motion voice, he knew she had much more to do than he did. She had makeup, fancier clothes, shoes, hair–

Wait.

Didn't she leave that the same way every time?

The back of Emmet's mind thanked the front profusely for the distracting thought, and it gladly mulled over Lucy's peculiar, unchanging, permanent hairstyle. Maybe she had always worn it way and saw no reason to ever change it. Or, perhaps she had hated wearing her hair down as a child, and this was her way of rebelling. Goodness (and, again, anyone who was anyone) knew that Lucy loved rebelling. Next to Masterbuilding, sleeping, and brooding, he would say it was her favorite hobby.

"We're going to be late, and Valentine's Day only happens once a year!"

"The ballroom can wait a few more minutes, and so can you!"

It was a bad idea, he mused, to knock on the door. However, he was bored. What else was he supposed to do?

"Lucy?" His hand lowered back to his tux pocket, no matter how often the monkey suit itched and scratched at his wrists. Thrice he had checked for tags and found none. "Are you _sure _you're alright?"

"Fine, fine, come in!"

The inflection had him in the door before she finished the command.

"Are you alright? I thought–"

There was always a part of Emmet's mind, however small, that kept itself detached from crises, chaos, or conflict. It simply stood back, smoked a cigar, smirked, and muttered, _That boy will never learn, _while his jaw went slack and his shoulders dropped, as helpless as a kitten on the subway. Sometimes the voice found his conscious actions to be pathetic, other times they knew it led to good things. Other times it just rambled as he stood like an idiot.

Across mere feet, Lucy hopped across the floor, hair dangling from her ponytail in her face as she struggled and wrestled to get a very complicated, bells-and-whistles high heel shoe on her foot. "I hate this, I _hate _this, why can't we wear sneakers?"

The dress, splashed with deep, romantic red wine, hugged Lucy's shoulders and fell at her waist, and she gave up on the shoe. It glittered like a single snowflake on a child's hand milliseconds before melting, and Lucy threw the cursed footwear against the wall. A diamond necklace so pure one could see through it glowed around her neck, and she slipped on a pair of flats, ebony and dotted with snow, muttering about blisters as she did.

"_Finally, _I can't tell you how glad I'll be when we come home and I put on sweatpants." Lucy stood up, brushed her hair out of her face, and caught herself in the mirror before emitting a low groan. "Ugh, Emmet, come back in five minutes, my hair is _still _in the process of hating me."

"Huh?" Emmet's vision finally took the sheepish step backwards into his head. Was he stupid, or had he floated into another dimension for the last moments? "What did you say?"

Lucy's voice, no longer fuzzed and blurred by static, rushed at him like a bullet. "Out," she said, pointing to the door. "I need to fix my hair, and to do that I need to take it out, and you don't want to see that."

"Why not?" Emmet resisted her gentle push towards the door. Something did not lay right in his fiancée's voice, and goodness knows, along with anyone who knew anyone who was anyone, that Emmet wasn't one to let things go lightly, especially if they had to do with Lucy.

As he turned to face the woman whose face nearly matched her dress and destroyed her blush, she huffed, more ticked off than he had expected, "Because you don't want to see me with my hair down, alright?"

"Why not?" Emmet thought they were beginning to sound like a broken record, which would have been romantic, if they were a married couple of sixty years with five children and seventeen grandchildren.

"Because!" Lucy insisted. She pointed to the door again. Her face was flaming.

A mental count to ten which lasted three seconds rushed through Emmet's mind. A sigh rolled up from his lungs and through his throat, before he shut his eyes gently and convinced himself to relax the littlest bit. "Will you at least tell me why you don't want me to? We don't keep secrets, right?"

A flash of guilt, or perhaps shame, but most likely annoyance, creeped across Lucy's face, like she wanted him to see it. "_We _don't, but my hair and I do."

"I'm sure you look really pretty!" The chipper boy scout inside him pepped up again, placed a band aid over the scrape on his knee, and spoke volumes through Emmet's voice, "I told you about the time I tripped in front of the whole school district when I was a kid, remember how funny that was?"

The look on his fiancée's face told him she didn't think it was funny. However, the pouting skepticism that lay in her expression gave him much more hope than the previous crimson did. "Emmet," she muttered, in the way someone very important says to someone who is very not. "I wear my hair up for the same reason you wear a construction uniform every day." She turned from him then, and he watched as her hands shivered a little around a small, blue brush. It ran through her locks just as absentmindedly as her mind raced.

"Because I'm too lazy and too hard to shop for?"

He spotted a smile in the mirror. She was so perfect when she smiled. He smiled back. "No, because I don't like how I look with my hair down."

No, that wasn't it. Anyone who didn't know anyone but knew these two knew that Emmet could read Lucy like a book. "I don't think that's it."

The smile vanished. "Of course it is."

"No, it's not."

The crimson rose other face again. She would spill in a moment. "_Yes, _it is!" Emmet could hear a meteor soaring through her voice.

"What happened?"

Where he expected an explosion of sorts, a bomb detonating within the second and hardly touching the next moment, Lucy merely leaked frustration and anger through a small, insignificant grunt. "My first boyfriend laughed."

"Huh?"

The brush dropped to the dresser, calmly, as if someone had lay it in the river, and Lucy turned to face her fiancé. She beckoned him over to her. "I was a sophomore in high school," she murmured. Her voice lay low, as if reporters with flashing cameras and itchy notepads clamored for every scrap of information outside their windows. Her hands cupped over Emmet's, and a small smile overcame his face as she pulled his arms around her waist. "Ryan, my first boyfriend, was an ok kid, a little over dedicated to school, but he was the first guy to pay me more attention than 'can I borrow a pencil?'"

Even as she told the story, as part of his mind lay dormant to pay attention to every detail, a small person inside him, a scrawny fellow who remembered everything at the wrong time, copied down vital parts of her story. It made mental notes to wonder how Lucy wasn't the most popular girl in school, how anyone could laugh at the most perfect girl in the world, and things about how to locate people after years of no contact.

"Anyway, we were at a movie, and everything was going pretty ok, until some kids came in. Little kids, like seven, y'know?" As her story went on, as he felt they were nearing the climax, her words rose in pitch and rattled together. "They didn't know much better, but they pulled on my hair and got the band loose. Next thing I knew, my hair fell around my shoulders, and Ryan was cracking up laughing at me."

"He was a jerk, Lucy." Emmet gently stroked his fiancée's cheek before pressing a quick kiss to her lips. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's ok." Lucy's voice slowed, and she tilted her head to kiss him back. "I just don't want it to happen again."

Emmet moved his hands to Lucy's back, hugged her close against him, and whispered, "I would never, _ever _laugh at you. I promise."

Some hesitation lay in her throat as she replied, "You sure?"

"Positive."

"Ok, you asked for it." She laughed a little as she pulled away from her fiancé, hands reaching towards her hair. "You're sure that you won't get freaked out? You've only ever seen me with my hair up, and you're allowed to be shocked."

"I'm ready."

Shutting her eyes, Lucy pulled on the band, and her hair fell just above her shoulders.

Threads of magenta merged with threads of teal, and between the tick, pasted lines of vibrant color, Emmet could pick out streaks of purple, and he thought they were merely a trick of the light, an illusion. They had to be.

It waved. As Lucy shrugged her shoulders, spoke muffled words already blurred by Emmet's panicked mind, her dangerously curly hair bounced and bubbled around her shoulders, scrunching lightly around itself. It held itself up, it was the hair women paid hundreds of dollars for in the salon, and Lucy had it simply by pulling out a rubber band.

"Well?" Finally, only after his mind had flicked on several lights and fixed the circuit board, did Emmet hear what his fiancée said. "I know it's _really _different, I don't even like it, besides, having it up keeps it out of my face, and–"

Emmet stole the words from her mouth as he kissed her.

His fiancée melted into his arms, and she linked her arms lightly around his neck, smiling and deepening the kiss as he held her. No words were said by either party as his hands gently, carefully, hesitantly reached up to her hair, and she fell into the kiss again as he drew her closer.

The kiss broke, both just out of breath enough to giggle at themselves. Emmet took Lucy's hands in his, smiled and whispered, "Have I ever mentioned how beautiful you are?"

Lucy smiled. "Yeah, I think so." Though her smile stuck, it faltered, and she ran a hesitant, quivering hand through her hair, stopping every other moment. "Are you sure you like it? You're not just saying that, right?"

"Lucy, do you remember what I looked like the first time I saw you?" Emmet ran a hand through her hair, and as she leaned into it, he had to bite down a smile. Anyone who wasn't anyone knew that Lucy, in a quiet moment, was adorable.

With a quick kiss, Lucy replied, "Like the cutest, craziest, most love-struck guy in the world?"

"Exactly. And you know what?"

"Hm?"

Emmet's hold around her tightened, and the smile on his face, the kind that only came when tears laced his eyes and every bad thought or fear scampered for cover, softly glowed as he whispered, "I couldn't find you any more or less beautiful, hair down or up, sweatpants or dress. You know why?"

His fiancée grinned like a child on Christmas morning. "Why?"

"Because I love you, not your looks."

With a soft kiss, Lucy replied, pride in her heart and a smile on her face, "I think that's a great reason."

#

_Later that night…_

Emmet beamed. He had rarely (already he knew he was lying) smiled so widely, but with Lucy on his arm, smiling and smirking like the queen she was, he had a reason to. His fiancée smiled at everyone who walked by as her hair, down and curled like a crown, brushed her shoulders with an angelic touch.

"Everyone thinks you look great, Lucy." Emmet pressed a quick kiss to his fiancée's lips, and she held it a moment longer.

Lucy smirked and leaned against the crystalline wall. "Yeah, but I discovered _major _drawback."

"What?"

"It gets in my face all the time."

The pair cracked up laughing.


	22. Someday

**A/N: Thank you guys SO MUCH for the reviews! They're awesome, especially as this collection nears the end. And MY GOSH I went through a period of hating this collection so dang much, when everything I wrote was total garbage, but FINALLY I healed from my writer's sickness or whatever XD. THANKS so much for being patient! LOVE YA! (Oh, if you go to see Toy Story 4, just a warning: YOU. WILL. CRY.)**

* * *

_One Month After LM 1_

It had been the best month of Emmet Brickowski's life.

Though beasts and dragons ravaged the land, threatened to take his home and life, and routinely interrupted everything that was supposed to fill fun in his life with no end in sight, he still thought it was the best, most wonderful time he had ever had. And the secret why was no secret at all for anyone who had known Emmet for more than five minutes.

"I'm going to go check on Benny, he seemed really down." Emmet looked towards the bunker, where Benny lay with a metal arm, tended to by anyone who wasn't in the heat of battle or the cold of resting.

"Hey, you'd be too if you lost an arm. Be back here around five, alright?" The look in Lucy's eyes told him many things, things he wasn't allowed to repeat to anyone, and things he held close to against his heart. The look she gave him told him that she needed him, that after a lengthy, death-defying day she needed to relax, that she could only really relax with him, and that there was an incredibly small chance she loved him. Oh, and that if he got hurt she would kill whoever did it, and him straight afterwards.

That was his favorite look.

Quickly, and after giving the abandoned street a once-over, Emmet gave his girlfriend a small kiss. "Don't worry. Bye Lucy!"

As he ran off towards the bunker, Lucy smiled, waved her hand, and mumbled, "See ya," just loud enough for him to pick up.

"Benny?" Emmet shuddered the moment he stepped down from the streets, at least illuminated against the nightlight of the brilliant sunset, into the dank, sticky bunker, where rats had already claimed and merely allowed them to rent it out. It reminded him of the laundry room of his childhood home. Too many rickety steps down, so he never entered until adolescence, but it was the source of nightmares for years on end. "How are you feeling?"

A lantern's glow pushed and battled against the darkness, and Emmet followed the one source down the cracked concrete steps, correctly assuming by the height of the lamp that MetalBeard was leading him. Emmet followed in silence. Was Benny alright? Would he be alright? What happened if he wasn't?

Emmet didn't want to think about it.

A person with one arm couldn't fight. What did they do if Benny couldn't actually battle? The team wouldn't abandon him. They wouldn't. Lucy had quickly gained the position of unofficial leader, and Emmet knew her well enough that she wouldn't. And if she did, which she wouldn't, Emmet would make it a 'if he goes, I go' deal. Leave no man behind.

But…he would never, no matter the circumstances, be able to betray Lucy.

_Benny, please, be ok._

After they came into the final plain of the bunker, the light hardly flickering any more, MetalBeard spoke up, his voice scratchy, like someone who had worked in deplorable conditions for too long, "The lad's asleep now, but doin' a bit better, I'd say."

The lantern gave its all, threw every ounce of energy it had, and it lay against a sleeping Benny, with his right arm bandaged and metal, from the shoulder down. Several scratches, in various levels of severity and healing, covered him from head to toe, a black eye shined out, and though Emmet wouldn't say it, his left wrist still didn't look too good.

MetalBeard said they were working on it.

"Is he any happier?" Emmet looked up to MetalBeard, who nodded across the floor.

"A little," Unikitty replied. She lifted the curtain of palpable, oily darkness around them, stepped into Emmet's view, and gave him a hug before turning back to Benny. "He's getting used to the new arm, I think, so it's not so much of a shock anymore."

"Will he be able to fight?" Emmet didn't want him to fight. Emmet didn't want _anyone _to have to fight. But he had to. They all did.

A sound similar to a meteor, flaming and larger than the moon, crashing into the bunker roared against their ears.

The wince on Unikitty's face distorted her motherly, hopeful disposition. Emmet hated that. "He may have to. You guys go, I'll stay with Benny."

Images, awful images burned into Emmet's mind, and he grabbed his best friend's shoulder. "Are you sure? I can stay with him instead, you did it this morning!"

Another thunderous crash.

MetalBeard was already out of the crumbling bunker. "Yes, it's fine, we'll be ok, you go!" Unikitty shoved him towards the steps, and without a second look, went to build back the bunker where it had already begun to fall. Emmet watched. She hardly broke a sweat. She wasn't afraid. Or she was just very good at hiding it.

A citizen screamed in the distance.

Emmet decided he could do the second.

The sunlight, though it had already begun to dissipate over the horizon, burned against his skin, like a vampire out of the darkness. "Lucy?" His first priority hollered out in a scalding sensation in his mind. "LUCY!"

"Get down!"

The words, shouted out by his favorite voice in the world, followed Lucy tackling him to the ground behind a building. They slammed down to the ground, Lucy on his chest, both coughing. His arm cradled around her, checking for injuries as he asked, "Wh-what's going on?"

Emmet didn't like the look in Lucy's eyes this time.

"Too many. There are too many of them, we've gotta get down to the bunker until they go." Halfway through her sentence Lucy had grabbed Emmet's hand, smearing both with blood, and started pulling him along to the bunker.

Just the mere feet between safety and danger nearly cost them their lives as arrows shot from above and no one bothered to find where they had come from.

"Batman, get in there!" Lucy hollered as she skidded to a stop.

"They're trapped." Even Batman, who had given one serious response once in his life, had nothing more to say.

Rocks, boulders, and concrete clung to the entrance of the bunker, sealing Unikitty and Benny in.

_No. Not them. Not anyone._

Emmet looked to Lucy, for comfort, for direction, for anything, only to find she had already turned to him.

"We…we have to get to a new bunker."

"But what about Benny and Unikitty?!"

Tears stung around Lucy's eyes. "I…I don't know, but we won't help them by standing here. If anything, they're safer than the rest of us, come on!" Before anyone could protest, Lucy grabbed Emmet's hand, nodded to Batman and MetalBeard, and stole the three away from their best friends.

"THERE!"

"No, wait, over there!"

"We'll never make it!"

"Here, here!"

As another arrow whizzed by and took Emmet's ankle along for the ride, he clutched his girlfriend's wrist and pulled them both into a ditch on the side of the road. MetalBeard and Batman ran for a run-down shed.

Emmet and Lucy slid into safety and pulled over cover before he saw if they made it.

"Are you ok?" Lucy dropped everything, her fears, her worries, her survival instincts and her need to be the leader, the moment she saw that Emmet had taken the worst from their search for shelter. "Why didn't you tell me you were getting hurt?"

Wincing, Emmet shifted as Lucy tried to decide which of his injuries was the worst. "I…honestly, Lucy, I hardly realized. Are you ok?"

Breath ragged, Lucy rolled her eyes and answered curtly, "Who cares? Emmet, focus on yourself for more than five seconds!"

_Everything _stung. His ankles burned from scratches so fresh they had hardly started bleeding yet. His head pounded and rolled around against his skull, and his vision wasn't sure where it wanted to lie. "I'm…I'm ok, Lucy, I promise."

"You're stupid," Lucy mumbled, pressing a hard kiss to his lips. He received it in full vigor, kissing back as if to assure her that he was, more or less, in one piece. His hands went to the base of her hair, and she clung around him. Emmet had learned, through the fast-paced though wonderful week, that if Lucy insulted him in the heat of battle, that was her way of saying, 'You mean so much to me that I hate you for almost getting hurt'

"I hate this." Lucy's muttered, enraged words broke the kiss. Flashing images of what could have been cracked and fizzled away in her mind, and though she called for them, bomb after bomb dissolved them to nothing.

Lucy rubbed her eyes against her sleeve. She wouldn't let him see her cry. "It wasn't supposed to be like this."

Gently, as he always did, Emmet rubbed Lucy's shoulder, running up to her cheek, before pressing a soft kiss to her lips. "I know. It'll get better though. I promise."

"When?"

"Eventually."

"That sounds long."

A rumble, like a boulder weighing a thousand tons rolling through a thousand buildings, whisked in their ears like a tumbleweed. They had heard it too many times to be shocked, but too few times not to tense.

"We'll be ok, I promise." Emmet brushed his girlfriend's matted, mudded hair out of her face, even as she tried to tear off fabric to make a bandage for his more severe injuries. "Have I ever told you how pretty you are?"

Lucy ignored his gaze. "You say that at the weirdest times, Ems."

"You look prettiest at the weirdest times. Well, at the normal ones too. Come to think of it, you–"

His words cut short, he bit down on his lip, and gripped Lucy's wrist for dear life as unbridled pain shot up his leg and decked him in the head. Lucy mumbled, wincing as Emmet nearly blacked out, "I know, I know, just hang on, ok?" She tied the bandage off, lifted up his ankle to inspect her work, then gently set it down. "You ok?"

Emmet nodded. The color had drained from his face.

"Don't worry, right? That's what you tell me." Lucy carefully pressed her forehead to Emmet's, smiling against his grimace. He was trying. She didn't want him, or anyone else, to have to try. It was stupid. They were supposed to be happy, together, and safe. "It'll all be over soon, then it'll just be you and me."

Right?

"Keep talking," Emmet muttered. He bit down on his lip as a thousand scalding pins stuck in his leg.

Lucy smiled, pressed a slow, soft, deep kiss to his lips, and nodded. "What should we do when this is all over? Maybe go biking? You said you love to do stuff out in nature, right?"

Nodding, Emmet forced a smile. For her sake.

"Good. Alright, what else? We can go swimming! We'll find a lake or something, somewhere with water, and we'll go swimming. I can't swim very well, but I'll figure it out."

The grin on Lucy's face as he spoke was all he needed to forget the pain for a moment. "You-you'd be a great sw-swimmer, Lucy."

"We could go on a big vacation. Somewhere nice, somewhere nice and far away. When this whole thing is over, we'll take a vacation, how about that?"

This time, they both loved the look on each other's faces.

"Yeah, I like that. Uni-Unikitty will probably want to come too."

They didn't hear the building fall, toppling floor by floor, to the ground. "Yeah, and we'll go biking and swimming, all that fun stuff, right?" She kissed him again. He kissed her back.

"And the…the war won't be going on, so you…so you won't have to brood, right?"

Lucy smiled. "That's right. We'll go on vacation, I won't brood, and we'll go biking, swimming, canoeing, hiking, whatever you want."

"Someday, right?"

"Someday."

No words were said as Lucy lay next to her boyfriend, cuddled around his middle, and wrapped her arms tightly around his chest. He did the same, and pressed a slow, soft kiss to her forehead.

_When all this is over, when you and I alone lay, _

_When the war has gone and I am left with you,_

_Then I shall be happy._

_When the war has sunk from whence it came,_

_When you are my darling again,_

_Then I shall be happy._

_When we can sit before a fire that is not our home,_

_When I can hold you with love and not protection,_

_Then I shall be happy._

_Then, my love, I shall be happy. _

#

"They've gotta be ok, right?"

Emmet's words were not lost on the group as they dug through boulders, crumbling rocks, dust and debris covering the bunker.

However, as most everyone nodded and murmured agreements, Lucy remained silent. She wouldn't lie to her boyfriend. She wouldn't tell her boyfriend, the only one who kept her going through what were supposed to be the days her life finally began, that Benny and Unikitty might be dead.

"Wait, here, I see them!" Emmet exclaimed, poking one hand through a hole he had made through the barrier. "UNIKITTY? BENNY?"

No response echoed back.

The heat burned against Lucy's skin. She clenched her eyes shut. No. She wouldn't be the one to find them like that. She would hide under the sunrise, the sunrise that was supposed to be filled with new promises and a new day. She wouldn't be the one to find them dead. Let someone else do it.

"E-Emmet?" A high-pitched, lovable and loving voice squeaked back at them.

Emmet's face lit up, and he gripped a disbelieving Lucy's shoulder. "UNIKITTY!"

For the next ten minutes, the group dug without a moment's de-acceleration at the boulders, until a one-manned space appeared in the wall. "Guys, are you ok?" Emmet poked halfway through the entryway, even as Lucy protectively cupped her hand around his shoulder.

"Wait, you're ok, I got ya!" Emmet's words muffled to the outside group, but after a moment, he backed out of the hole, and pulled Unikitty out with him.

"UNIKITTY!"

The whole gang ran at her, hugged her as tightly as anyone could be hugged, and didn't let go until she stopped purring.

She had to be that person. Lucy ignored the rolling guilt in her mind as she asked, "Wait, wait, where's Benny?"

"He's not already out?" The pink drained from Unikitty's face and left stark white. "We...we got separated by the boulders, I-I don't know what happened to him."

No.

Emmet wouldn't believe it.

Lucy had guessed it.

MetalBeard hadn't thought of it.

Batman wished he had thought of it.

Unikitty had assumed it wasn't true.

Benny knew it wasn't true.

Before a single tear spilled, sharp, metal drilling came from the opposite side of the bunker, and a metal arm protruded the morning, dewy air, followed by Benny clawing himself back to the surface.

"BENNY!"

_When the war is over, my friends,_

_Then we shall be happy._


	23. Where You've Gone (PLZ READ AN)

**A/N: Thank you guys so much for the reviews, I LOVE YA! And WOW, this collection is almost over! I have a poll up about the finale, which is the 25****th**** chapter…WE'RE ALMOST THERE! XD, anyway, here's the third-to-last one! THANKS! This is *sort of* and AU, another war based one…partially inspired by a show I watch, M*A*S*H. I was struggling so much with this story, then ****_Wishing You were Somehow Here Again_**** from Phantom of the Opera came on my plalist, and it FIXED EVERYTHING and inspired me YAY. Ok, I'm done, THANKS!**

***dedicated to all the men and women who went off to war, their spouses, and their children.***

Emmet was dead.

Or, at least, he might have been.

In Lucy's world, he might as well have been.

She raised their child on her own. She lived with her best friend for support. She never saw her husband. She _hadn't _seen him in three years. In many respects, in too many respects, he was already dead.

War was stupid, Lucy had decided. War took things from her that no one had a right to take. It took the father of her child, it took the love of her life, it took her peace and quiet, it took _everything. _If the war took Emmet, if the war really took the only man she had ever loved with her heart and not her mind, she wouldn't be able to make it. She would surely crack, and her daughter would be a complete orphan. Unikitty would have to raise her.

No, no, she wouldn't think like that. Peace talks existed. They would fix things, and they would bring Emmet home. To her.

_"Lucy…the war."_

_"No, Emmet, don't tell me. I don't want to hear it." Venom hissed through her voice. She wanted to punch something. She knew Emmet did too. His once dark chocolate, sweet eyes played with the idea of sending a punch through the wall, and she would not blame him. _

_The letter trembled and quivered in his pale hands. The white paper matched the color of his face. Ghostly. "L-Lucy…I have to."_

_"Then I'm coming too!" There was no way, no way in the world that she would let Emmet go off to some battle field alone. Better she got her brains blown out then he. Anything other than him. "I'm influential, Emmet. They'll let me in."_

_The nod he gave her was enough for Lucy to know he didn't really agree, but he spoke anyway, "I know they will, and that's why you're not going."_

_Defensive, hot-headed anger boiled up. Why wouldn't he let her protect him? "Let me guess, you're the man, so you have to protect me, huh?"_

_Before she knew it, Emmet had dropped the letter, marched over it, grabbed her by the waist and begun kissing her, passionate on the mouth. She immersed her hands in his hair and drew him closer. The war couldn't take him. Not him. He didn't deserve it._

"MOMMY!" A high-pitched, lovable and loving voice called out to Lucy from the kitchen, and her thoughts could no longer dwell on the past that haunted her every nightmare.

A young girl barreled into the kitchen, hair a spectacle that would someday drive every boy nuts, just like her father. Brown, chocolate locks framed her face, with aqua splashes thrown in at every other inch, much like her mother. Her eyes, emerald green from who-knew-where in the family, shone out as the child crawled onto her mother's lap. A little over two years old but very intelligent for her age, Emma understood there was a daddy, a daddy who loved her, and a daddy that she would someday meet. Or, she understood as often as Lucy would tell her.

Lucy's heart lifted briefly as Emma held up a picture. "I find Daddy!" Emma exclaimed the sentence as though she had _really _found daddy, as though he had hid in the closet for the past three years.

The snapshot that Emma handed to her mother was one Lucy had several copies of scattered around the house. Emmet had passed out on their lawn, a pair of goofy sunglasses on his face and Lucy on his arm, who had also fallen victim to exhaustion. Unikitty promised up and down she didn't take the picture, but Lucy never really bought it.

"Yeah, that's daddy. And who's that?" Lucy pointed to herself in the photo.

Emmet smiled wide. "Mommy!"

"Who took the picture?"

"Unikitty!"

Even the smallest accomplishment on her daughter's part brought a smile to her face. "Good, Emma."

"I want snack."

"It's almost dinnertime."

"Snack."

The child certainly had her father's persistence, Lucy noted. Then again, if Emmet was here, he would probably point out that Lucy could be just as stubborn as he. The pleasant thought only dragged bitter, dark images with it, and Lucy discarded it quickly. She enjoyed thinking about Emmet…most of the time. "Alright, ask Unikitty to get you a snack."

"Th…thank you," Emma replied, smiling through her careful words. She hugged her mother once more, than ran off with the picture clutched to her chest.

_After too few moments, Emmet pulled back, breathing heavily but focusing his gaze on his wife. "Lucy, on our wedding day, I promised to love you no matter what. Part of that means I do what's best for you. Letting you come to war with me is not what's best."_

_"But what about you!" Her hands clawed at his shoulder. Tears burned against her eyes. Why didn't he listen? "I'm supposed to love you, I can't let you go!"_

_"You getting hurt isn't going to help me!"_

_"I can't just stay here while you die on some bloody battle field!"_

_Never before had they glared at each other. Every other fight, every conflict, ever issue was one-sided. Lucy was mad at Emmet. Emmet was mad at Lucy. But never, ever at the same time. It was as if winter had turned on snow, spring slapped down flowers, yin hated yang, and yang hated yin. The peace had broken._

_"Lucy, my whole life, I've let other people make the decisions for me, right down to when I breathed."_

_"Emmet…"_

_"No!" His voice snapped against a whip. "You're not going! I won't let you get killed!"_

_"But–"_

_"I love you." Emmet stepped away, his voice hard and his glare set. "You're not going, Lucy."_

_She crossed her arms over her chest. "Make me."_

_They say the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference._

_As Emmet hardly regarded her reply, turned around, and marched upstairs, Lucy had to wonder if this was indifference._

There was no chance in heck that Unikitty was going to move out in anyone's lifetime, and no one even considered it when Lucy found out she was pregnant. They never needed a babysitter, and when Emma had woken up in the middle of the night screaming, often times Unikitty would crawl out of bed and sleep beside Emma until she stopped. And, when Lucy woke up in the middle of the night screaming, Unikitty would curl at the edge of her bed until she stopped.

Unikitty was Lucy's support, and her best friend.

But, if there was one person she loved to see as much as she loathed to think about, it was their mailman, Roger.

A knock rang out at the door, three times high and once low, Roger's signal, and Lucy was up from the couch like a bullet that could have killed her husband.

Emmet did not like Roger. When the war had snatched Emmet away, they also got a new mailman, and Roger became Emmet's scapegoat, almost representing all men who supposedly had their eye on Emmet's gorgeous wife. Lucy had repeatedly told him that Roger, being sixty-three with a wife, four children and sixteen grandchildren, probably had no interest in her, and the feeling was obviously mutual, but this did little to calm her paranoid husband.

"Anything?" Lucy hardly used greetings until after she had attacked the mail, and Roger understood this. He reminded her a great deal of Vitruvius, seeing capabilities aside. He understood that the mail terrified Lucy, and until she had read it and was certain it contained no news of her husband's death, she could not function.

Roger handed her a blue envelope, Emmet's classic stationary, but Lucy would not rest until she had seen it was not her feared piece of news. "Just this, and I don't think you have to worry, it's on schedule and everything."

"Uh-huh." Nothing he said comforted her until she had ripped the envelope open, tore out the letter, and devoured the first paragraph.

Her heart fell back into her chest, and the world dropped its shoulders once more.

"He's ok?" Roger murmured, carefully as the young woman he had begun to consider a daughter more or less collapsed against the doorway.

A careful nod, a warm smile, told him all he needed. "He's alright. There was no fighting since his last letter, just some patrol, but no sniper encounters. He's ok." These were the only good moments of the war.

"See? I was right again."

The other extremely invested party came barreling into the room in a flash of pink. "Is he ok?"

Repeating the words only filled Lucy's heart with hope, and she clutched the precious letter to her chest. "He's ok. No fighting, no snipers, he's ok."

One more set of shoulders relaxed, and Unikitty said a quick prayer of thanks.

Emmet was still safe.

_"You ever going to talk to me?" Emmet asked, the first words of the hour. While they had given each other a hefty cold shoulder after their mutual fight, Lucy almost always held out longer, and Emmet was left to beg and plead by her door until she decided to respond, like usual._

_As her husband settled into bed next to her, her defense weakened, but she had not gone through everything she went through in life to end as a pushover. Not even two years of marriage could do that to her, though it had helped. _

_"I don't like yelling. You know that." Lucy wondered if he spoke in short bursts to keep from crying. It wasn't as if she could see him, the only signs that he was even next to her were his voice, the pressure of him sitting on the bed, and the light shadow the lamp cast on their wall. If she looked at him, she would just end up sobbing in his arms, and it was too soon to do that. Maybe tomorrow. _

_Unfortunately for Lucy's frozen shoulder, Emmet knew how to melt her within minutes. His hand slipped into hers, warm and comforting, steady and constant. In under a week, she would sleep in this bed alone, and no one would be there to hold her hand. _

_Again._

_Tears started trickling down her face, but she stayed strong, and didn't look at him._

_"I…I'm going to miss you."_

_He was trying not to cry. She knew that now._

_"You're everything to me, Lucy. I can't…I won't lose you."_

_This time, she had to look._

_He was crying._

_Not nearly as hard as she._

_She threw herself at him and kissed him hard on the mouth. She had to hold him tight. So tight he wouldn't leave her. Ever. _

_If he died, she died._

_She was going to war. _

"I'm glad, darlin'. I've got a lot more packages and letters, but tomorrow you'll tell me what the boy said, alright?" Roger nodded to Unikitty, almost as a 'take care of her' sort of thing that Lucy knew took place every time he delivered something.

"Thanks, Roger. Tell Maria I say hi."

"Will do."

The door shut quietly behind him, and Unikitty curled up on the couch, in the right corner, her traditional spot for reading Emmet's letters. "Come on, don't be greedy, Lucy." Unikitty had dropped the use of her old alias the instant Emmet went off to war; if Unikitty was going to hear Lucy sob in the middle of the night about nightmares, she couldn't call her by a nickname like that any longer.

"I know, I know." Lucy sat on the couch, in the middle, and called out to the kitchen, "Emma, a letter from daddy came!"

"DADDY!"

Once more, the child came barreling through the room, a talent Lucy assumed she had learned from Unikitty. The toddler hiked up onto the couch, snuggled up against Unikitty, more of a big sister than an aunt of any sort, and prepared to listen to the words of a father she hardly knew, but loved with all of her innocent heart.

_"Dear Lucy, Unikitty, and Emma,"_

Lucy smiled to herself, and paused, an action Unikitty and Emma knew she was prone to while reading Emmet's letters. Instead of addressing and writing three separate letters, Emmet chose to just write one long letter to 'his girls', who now consisted of a third member.

_"No fighting, some patrol, but no snipers. I'm still alive, happy to report."_

Lucy had also requested Emmet tell her in his letters that he was alive and what had transpired since his last letters immediately, so she didn't have to skim the whole thing before reading and re-reading it.

_"It's been a quiet two weeks; the gang is elated with the possibility of peace talks working out. Oh, and tell Watevra that Batman's letter is going to be a little late, he took my and Benny's patrol so we could write ours. He's fine, we're all fine. Tell her he misses her._

_"We haven't heard anything about MetalBeard, but don't worry, I still think he's fine. Benny's worried, though, so I've been trying to distract him. Did I mention I stink at basketball, golf, and checkers? But I can still knock these guys under the table at any trivia game."_

"Daddy funny!" Emma broke in, though she hardly understood the words. If her mother chuckled, she assumed something was funny.

_"Well, I guess I'll do the usual, huh? Unikitty, you're up first this time."_

Somewhat reluctantly, Lucy handed the letter over to Unikitty, who read her paragraph, one of her favorite parts of 'Letter-Reading Day' as she had dubbed in a light-hearted moment.

_"Unikitty, I think of you every time something is happy. Every time I see a flower on parched ground, or a vibrant color that really should not have stepped into war times, I think of you. I can still remember all the ways you'd make me laugh, all the pranks we'd pull, and the fun times we had back home. I like thinking about those, they make me laugh, and planning to do more reminds me that someday I'll come home. I miss and love you, and save me another cookie, because I did, in fact, skip a rock fifteen times. And you said I couldn't do it. Ha! Love you."_

"Stupid Emmet," Unikitty cursed lightly, regarding the tears that had pooled in her eyes. She handed the letter to Lucy, who read Emma's paragraph aloud,

_"Emma, hi, sweetie! From the pictures your mother sends me, I can already tell how beautiful you are! I don't know where the curly hair comes from, sorry. Mom tells me that you're becoming quite the artist, which doesn't surprise me, you're going to be talented at everything, I knew that when you were in mommy's belly. You're going to do so well in school, but don't grow up too fast! When I come home we'll do all sorts of things, we'll watch cartoons, build a castle, play hide and seek, whatever you want. I love you Emma, do what your mommy says, and be a good girl. Love you."_

As per custom, Lucy read her paragraph to herself, during which Unikitty and Emma quietly discussed Emmet, and all the things they would do with him when he got back.

_Lucy? It this thing on? Ha ha, just kidding. I miss you so much. It stinks over here, and I hate to even think this, but I'm jealous when other guys get to go home. I'm happy for them, but I want to be them, going home, and seeing you. How are things? I know you mentioned you're trying to learn to cook, and Lucy, I'm really proud of you, but don't be too hard on yourself, cooking is hard! I can just imagine you smirking right now, so thank you for that. I love you. And as for your questions, yes, no, sometimes, of course not, maybe, and of course I still love you. Is Roger still delivering the mail? I don't like it, but you're probably laughing now. Hey, how am I supposed to believe that he's really sixty? Anyway, I know I can trust you. I love you. I can't make this paragraph too much longer, Unikitty will get jealous, ha ha. I love you, Lucy._

_"Well, I've gotta go, dinner time. I miss you all, and I can't wait to come home, hopefully before I have a chance to write another letter. Be good to each other, and don't forget about me. I love you guys."_

_Faithfully yours forever,_

_Emmet._

"I miss him," Unikitty mumbled, curling in a tight, protective ball around Emma, who clung to Unikitty's tail like it was a stuffed animal. Lucy said nothing, she merely stared on at the letter, vaguely aware that her best friend understood she wasn't ready to speak just yet. At this, Unikitty sat up a bit, blinked back the sore tears as she often did, and motioned to the kitchen with a weary head. "Come on, Emma, let's go get dinner ready, huh?"

"I want cookies!" Emma, ever the youngest woman in the household, had already moved her focus onto the next interesting thing about her life.

Being half a mother had taught Unikitty a few things. "No, not for dinner."

"Cookies!"

"No…"

"Cookies!"

Unikitty sighed and looked at the toddler. "You are _so _a combination of your mom and dad."

After they had gone, Lucy was left, with the letter in her hands, to mull over its contents. These were the only words from Emmet she would get for two weeks, if she was lucky. She often re-read his letters, sometimes until she had them memorized, before retiring them to a small drawer in her – their – bedroom.

Even after three years, she still slept on the left side of the bed. Never the right.

Six years of dating, five in a war. Five years of marriage, three in a war. Eight of the eleven years she had spent with Emmet were during a war, and she couldn't take it anymore! She had spent more time with him and blood than just him!

_Time heals all wounds, and as the days drew nearer to Emmet – and possibly Lucy's – departure, the fight sat quietly in the corner, except when someone chose to mention it, perhaps over dinner, or in bed, when they would hash over the same points._

_Emmet knew she wasn't going._

_Lucy knew she had to go._

_In the moment, each assumed they would win out._

_Well, one was no longer as sure._

_How long did it take? She couldn't pace forever, right? Or maybe she could. Maybe she would. Maybe she would just lose her mind, stepping over the same bathroom tiles over and over again, until she was crazy and didn't have to deal with problems anymore. Maybe that was better._

_In the front of her mind, she believed it wasn't true. She told herself it was impossible, it couldn't be true _now,_ of all times, and she was just being paranoid and anxious. Of course she was, because she couldn't be pregnant. People like her didn't become parents. People like her _especially _didn't become parents five days before they went off to war. _

_Quickly, she peeked at the timer. Twenty seconds, and she would know just what was making her throw up in the morning. _

_Her hand ran absentmindedly over her stomach, yet she drew it back quickly. _

No reason to get dramatic, Lucy.

_The timer dinged._

_Her feet went ahead of her body, and she towered above the small test on the bathroom sink. _

_"Hey, Lucy! What are you doing up?" This morning, it appeared Emmet was feeling particularly upbeat, but that was no real surprise on a Wednesday, one of Emmet's favorite days of the week, when they showed his favorite cartoons and the bakery stayed open after he got off work. "I just called in and said I didn't want to go to work, how about we make this our day, huh? Waterpark, archery, the movies, whatever you want."_

_Emmet's wife gave no response._

_"Lucy?" Emmet's bright smile faltered as Lucy made no move to reply, still hunched slightly over the sink and staring at something he couldn't see. "Are you ok?" he ventured a couple careful steps over to her side, pressed a warm kiss to her cheek and wound his arms tightly around her waist, resting his head on her shoulder. "What's that thing?"_

_"That…" Lucy's hands fell to her sides and grasped Emmet's tightly. Her breath drained from her chest. "…is a pregnancy test."_

_"And what does the little plus sign mean?" Emmet's voice quivered as he spoke._

_A deep breath passed over her lips before she received her husband's reaction. "It means I'm positive."_

_"Which means…"_

_"You know what it means."_

_"I…I want you to say it."_

_"I'm pregnant."_

_The facts and ugly truths clung to her voice, and she began to ramble, looking everywhere but her husband's watering eyes. "I don't know what we're going to do. I __**obviously **__can't go off to war pregnant, much less with a child, which means you…and I can't…you won't…"_

_"Lucy?"_

_The gentle tone, the warm inflection of his voice broke through, and she lifted her burning, blurred gaze to her husband, whose eyes had yet to stop pooling with tears. She was vaguely aware of her hand tightening on his wrists. He wouldn't leave. He couldn't leave. Not now. Not like this._

_As she opened her mouth to reply, to say something, to explain why her shoulders trembled and her lips quivered, only two words rolled out, "I…I'm scared."_

_"I love you." He said the words as if saying them for the first time, gathered his wife in his arms and clinging her against his chest. She responded in kind, and her arms curled around his neck, spilling tears onto his shoulder. Some were happy, others were terrified, many were sad, but she took some comfort in the fact her husband sobbed through laughter on her shoulder. She shortly joined him._

_"Only we would be in this situation," Lucy chuckled into the crook of his neck._

_"Only we would be so lucky. Lucy, we're having a baby."_

_"You're going off to war."_

_"You're going to be a mommy."_

_"I am."_

_Drawing back, Lucy gave little thought to her husband seeing her red-eyed and sobbing, for he looked exactly the same. "I love you, and I don't want to think about the war. For the next three days, just three, I want to pretend the war isn't happening. I want to act like everything is alright."_

_She responded a bit quickly as he pressed forward into a kiss, and on her lips, he replied, "Promise."_

Promise. He _promised _to come home. When he had left, he _promised _her that he would be back. Three years. Could she say he was late? Had enough time gone by that she could call him up, holler at him that he was late, and force the war to give back the love of her life?

No one knew exactly when the war would be over. President Business' day was constantly filled up with peace talks, on top of his usual duties, and she knew he was doing everything he could, but since it had been a thousand days since she had last seen her husband, it didn't feel like he was getting anything done. At all.

"Lucy!" Unikitty poked her head out of the kitchen, and Lucy barely caught the image of Emma riding on Unikitty's back. "Are you coming to dinner?"

Another glance at the letter. Two weeks ago, Emmet, her Emmet, had held this letter. His hands held the paper, he mulled over the words, he stuffed the letter into the envelope. No matter how small, something of him was in this letter.

And that's how she would get through the next two weeks.

"I'm coming."

#

_Six months later…_

It was today.

The war was over.

The sentence still, after a week, gave Lucy pause. It didn't feel real. Everyone told her it would sink in, that eventually, she would realize the war was really over, for good. But she didn't believe them. If the war was over, if they had actually stopped it, she still believed it would start again, take Emmet again, and ruin her life…again.

Airports were too crowded, Lucy decided. Most of the people were women, wives, and mothers, but many were fathers, young brothers, and older uncles, who waited for their boys to come home. The longer Lucy looked, the more she realized how many people had gone. She saw husbands of nurses, sisters of medics, mothers of ranking officers, dogs of enlisted men and children of corporals. The war hurt too many people. How many families weren't here because no one was coming home for them?

MetalBeard.

After being captured by the enemy, he never returned. Emmet had held out hope, believing with unrelenting optimism that he was alive and alright, until he couldn't believe it anymore.

No one was alright. No one _would _be alright after that.

To the her right, but across the way, Sweet paced the thickest hole in the ground Lucy had ever seen. Her last letter from Benny hadn't come…and five weeks late was too long for a wife not to worry. Heck, a _day _late was too long not to worry. Everyone had offered their reassurances, but she believed none of them.

Watevra, far on the left, kept re-reading Batman's letter, his promise to come home. She cracked jokes about him not coming home so he could return to his bachelor life, but no one missed the fear cracking her voice.

As for Lucy, she remained silent. She held Emma in her arms, resting on her hip, bouncing her child as a way of distracting the jittery anxiety that needed some sort of outlet. "Here, Unikitty, take Emma, I'm too nervous."

Emma clung to Unikitty's back the moment her mother set her there, and she giggled as Unikitty bounced her in a steady motion. "Why would you be nervous? Emmet's coming home!" Recent weeks had done wonders for Unikitty's mood, and their optimistic, peppy best friend had gained back some of her charisma they all loved.

"I know, I'm not, just anxious is all." Lucy supposed some of it was just pent-up excitement. For three years, practically forever, she had dreamed of seeing Emmet again. From the moment he left she dreamed of his coming home. Now it was happening, and she didn't know what to think. Would he think she looked different? Did _he _look different? What about their daughter? Would he see Emma and get freaked out?

Lucy refused to entertain the idea he had met someone over there. Never. Emmet loved her. He would never do something, even think about it, like that. Never ever.

Somewhere in the crowd that began where Lucy couldn't see and ended where she thought she could see but couldn't, a woman, tearful and overjoyed, hollered, "THE PLANE LANDED!"

This stirred a low-level of chaos in the crowd, but Lucy, Emma and Unikitty remained in a small circle, close enough to see where Emmet would enter, but far enough that Lucy was worried he would miss them.

"You ok?" Unikitty smiled a little, if only to stop Lucy from hyperventilating.

"I will be once Emmet gets here."

A few nerve-wracking minutes later, the door, everyone in that airport's favorite door, opened.

Lucy's heart, after three years, bubbled back up to her chest.

Men started filing out, each one running into someone arms. Women collapsed in their husband's arms, children tackled their fathers to the ground, dogs licked their owners faces, and laughter ran over the airport like a wave.

Lucy didn't see Emmet.

"He's coming, I promise!" Unikitty forced the words so hard Lucy thought she had popped out a tooth.

As her stomach refused to lie down for even a second, Lucy clutched her midsection and moaned, "Where _is _he?!"

If only to distract Lucy for another sixty seconds, to her right, Benny pushed past the crowd. Sweet nearly fainted, but running and tackling Benny to the ground seemed to help that. Her heart stuck in her chest at seeing Benny. One was back. He was alright.

By the time Lucy looked to the left, Batman had returned, and Lucy caught herself grinning. Watevra looked like she didn't believe it, like it was too good to be true, like she had honestly expected to go home alone.

That was two.

Where was hers?

Again, she looked as Benny held Sweet, still sobbing and holding onto each other for dear life. Would she even–

"LUCY!"

_Emmet._

Her head snapped around, and Emmet pushed through the crowd.

It took half a second to crash into him.

If everything, if all her senses had blurred for the past hours, now every detail rushed at her in vivid detail. Emmet's arms clutched around her back so tight she wouldn't be able to pry away. His hands ran up to her neck. He was still warm, warmer than she thought he still could be. His hair felt rougher. He felt stronger, more well-built, in her arms. He sobbed into her shoulder, but it was nothing compared to how she bawled into his chest. They both collapsed to their knees, hugging tighter and tighter.

"I love you."

"I love you way more."

As if remembering something one briefly forgot, Emmet drew back the tiniest bit, slipped his hands to the back of Lucy's head, and brought her lips to his.

The world stopped.

Lucy kissed him with everything she had, everything that had waited for him for three years. He kissed quicker, more urgently, after being away, but she met him, clutching at his shoulders and whispering all the things she had waited to tell him through the kiss. He replied through mumbles.

"Emmet…" As much as she didn't want to, Lucy pulled back, even as Emmet kissed her again. She held his hands, the same hands she had wanted to hold all those years ago, and drew him to stand up. "You…your daughter."

"DADDY!"

Never before had Lucy seen Emmet's face that much at peace, that much in wonder.

"E-Emma?" Emmet dropped to his knees. "M-My Emma?"

The toddler ran from Unikitty to her father, hopped up and let him catch her, hold her to his chest and gently cry.

Lucy bent down beside them, and Emmet drew her into their hug. "I love you both. Way more than you know." He sobbed through his words.

"Hey, wha-what about me?" Unikitty, for once waiting her turn patiently, finally spoke up, finally stomped her foot like Emma would.

Grinning, Emmet opened up his arms to his best friend. "UNIKITTY!"

"EMMET!"

Unikitty tackled Emmet to the ground, and everyone began laughing. No one could stop.

"EMMET!"

"SWEET!"

Reunion after reunion rolled through. Emmet ran to hug Sweet, grabbing his sister-in-law by the waist and spinning her around. Benny hugged Lucy tight and let her lightly punch him on the shoulder. Batman and Lucy, for only a moment, pretended they were horrified to see each other again, then grabbed together in a hug. Emmet hugged Watevra, and it wasn't long until they started chatting each other's heads off.

As hugs, tears, laughter, and relief spilled throughout the group of friends, little did they know Vitruvius and MetalBeard watched, laughing and crying for their best friends.

#

Later that night…

"I can't believe it."

"I mean, it makes sense, right?"

"Still!"

Lucy rolled her eyes at her husband, who had passed out on the living room floor, Emma fast asleep in his arm and Lucy's ankle in his hand. "He won't even let me go, have you see this?" Lucy gently tugged on her leg, and Emmet's hand stayed attached. Not that she would separate herself from her husband, especially in the quiet silence of night, when everything in the universe was so perfect. No, Lucy wanted to stay here forever and ever.

Grinning, Unikitty curled up under Emmet's legs. "He seems to want to keep all of us here. I'm exhausted, so I suggest you join in."

It amazed her how much Lucy had missed smirking. "Alright, but I'm not…" she yawned. "falling asleep."

"I can see that!"

Relenting to join her family – and goodness, she loved that word – Lucy lay on the floor, and, feeling his wife's arms around his chest, Emmet let go of her ankle, content to snuggle her close instead. Lucy pressed a warm kiss to his lips, and it seemed he woke up just to kiss her back.

"Mmhm...I missed that, Lucy." He pressed a quick kiss to her forehead, and she giggled lightly.

"Me too. I love you."

Cuddling his wife back into his chest, Emmet whispered into her hair. "I love you more."

Lucy smiled, once more in Emmet's arms.

_Welcome home, Emmet. _


	24. A Loaded Question

**A/N: WOW I didn't know everyone would be that taken with the last chapter XD, thank you SO MUCH! Gee, apparently AUs are really 'in' or something lol. And WOW, second to last chapter! We're almost there! *blows whistle, trips off stage* I just watched Rise of the Guardians, so I may have to write a fanfic for Tooth and Jack XD. THANKS!**

* * *

_1 Year After Lego Movie 1_

"Love is a strong word, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, that's why he used it!"

Lucy groaned. Again. Not that Unikitty had an ounce of sympathy for her best friend, after all, only _she _would have this problem. Only Lucy would make a problem where there wasn't one, rope Unikitty into it by the throat, then complain that she wasn't helping at all. Only Lucy.

"Emmet loves you," Unikitty hissed through gritted teeth. Her cowering best friend huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, somewhat like a five-year-old told she really _had _to go to the doctor. "I'm sorry if that fact inconveniences you, but it's true, and you're going to have to figure out what's going on in that oddball heart of yours by eight tonight!"

If anyone could look at a friend with total bitterness and dissatisfaction, Lucy did it. "You're not helping."

"I'm not trying to help! I'm trying to get you to help yourself." Unikitty took another jittered glance at the clock, her vision twisted and halfway in her stomach as she did. Five in the evening. For a moment, she regretted being so deeply involved with her best friends. It meant dealing with them and their problems, it meant having expectations of fixing the issues, and this time, she just didn't know if she could fix it.

There was the look again. That look of total distrust, anger, and beyond that a bit of helpless begging. Lucy looked like a country woman lost in a big city. "What do I tell him? He's bound to tell me he loves me again, what the heck do I say?"

"I love you too?"

Lucy smirked. "Same here, Unikitty, but what do I tell Emmet?"

The answer was not as simple at a first glance. When Unikitty had come home, Lucy's face was a ghost, cheeks silver and lips quivering. Emmet was nowhere to be found, and considering Lucy was in a less-than-perfect condition, Unikitty assumed that the world had ended and she was hallucinating the whole thing. Further investigation told the whole story.

Emmet had, during a bloody battle, confessed to Lucy that he loved her. For the first time.

The battle distracted them both before she could give an answer, not that she had one.

Now, hours later, when they had a date in just a few more hours, something told Lucy, be it Unikitty or her own gut, that he was going to say those words again, and expect a response this time. What was she supposed to say? 'I don't know' was never something girls said to guys after he said, 'I love you', and she didn't know if Emmet could handle it.

But…she really didn't know.

After being silent for too long, either because she didn't have an answer or didn't want to give one, Unikitty muttered, a trickle of mirth running across her words, "I don't see how someone could not know if they're in love. I can only guess it means you're not."

"Hey, wait a minute." Lucy sat up against the wall, defenses pushing her chest forward to fight back. "We don't know that, I'm just saying I have no idea how to tell if I'm in love! Is there some blood test I can take?"

Unikitty rolled her eyes.

"I never loved Batman," Lucy offered, under her breath and under the radar. Unikitty looked at her again, sympathy and curiosity beaming out of her eyes. Lucy twiddled with her fingers as memories, memories she didn't care for and didn't like, rolled, and bounced around in her mind. "I can say I've only loved a few people in my life, and I've never loved anyone _that _way, y'know, the romantic one. I just don't know what it's supposed to feel like."

After Lucy had subtly rubbed her eyes against her hoodie, she picked her gaze up, only to find Unikitty grinning like she had just won a vacation across the world. Come to think of it, she always looked like that, but something about this smile scared Lucy a little. "Uh, Unikitty? Tell me that doesn't mean you have an idea."

"I have an idea…" It took all Unikitty's willpower not to squeal, but the words did enter the air in a very sing-song way.

"Oh brother."

By the time Lucy had checked the clock again, Unikitty was already down their hallway, shouting something about not moving a muscle. Lucy shrugged. She could do that. Not that anything Unikitty could do would help her, short of teaching her what love is in less than three hours.

Unikitty rushed back in, depositing a truckload of books, CDs, and DVDs onto the living room floor. "I'm going to teach you what love is in less than three hours!"

The book titles were…interesting, to say the least. The variation in literature that Unikitty had chosen was wild, from psychology books to fairytales, from wedding planners to couple albums, if it had a heart sticker or was covered in pink, Unikitty owned it. She titled her head to her best friend, who had begun arranging them by difficulty, skepticism flashing across her freckles. "Uh, Unikitty, I don't know if this will work. I mean, I think this is the type of thing philosophers and people with more than three hours of time tried to learn. We're not going to learn it with _Your Brain and YOU _and _The Princess and the Pea."_

Instantly, Lucy saw her mistake.

"You've challenged me, Wyldstyle." Unikitty grinned, a tint of future evil mastermind in her grin. "So, sit down, zip your lips, and prepare to defeat Cupid."

5:13 PM

"MY GOSH, Unikitty, I get it!" Lucy finally screamed. She would have felt bad about it, but she had held in the holler so many times that at this point, she felt her mentor kind of deserved it, and even if she didn't, I felt pretty good at the time.

The princess across from her didn't seem fazed by her outburst in the slightest way, and that irked something in Lucy that she didn't care for. "Alright, it's ok! Just say it with me…"

After a moment's glare, Lucy relented, "Love is deep affection for a person and wanting the best for them. There, happy?"

"It would be nicer if you smiled while you said it…"

"SHUT UP!"

Unikitty dodged the pillow.

Lucy groaned.

5:47 PM

"So, I don't believe that love is caused by chemicals in your brain, and I tell people so every time I go online, which usually gets me banned pretty quickly. Anyway, I believe love comes from here." Unikitty tapped her pointer to a chart, right on the heart of the human. "Now, _some _people think the heart's purpose is to pump blood, but I think that it does that on its spare time."

Lucy knew all of this was totally false, but it didn't seem worth arguing. "Uh-huh."

"Good. Now, what do you think people feel when they're in love?" Unikitty poked her pointer into the ground and awaited Lucy's response.

"Well, it's…"

"No, I mean, like–"

"I don't know, when you…"

Her best friend's color drained with frustration, and Unikitty nearly told her to stop stuttering for an answer. It wasn't fair to drive her mad, and she really didn't want to get hit with a pillow anyway. But then…

Throwing her hands in a wild attempt to clutch at an answer floating in mid-air, Lucy finally responded with, "I don't know…happy? Content? Like you can take over the world? Like someone cares about you, like you're valued? Like life is this amazing thing when you have someone next to you who would do anything for you?" The worlds had hardly left her mouth when she realized she had practically recited Unikitty's lines.

The teacher grinned. "Excellent."

6:09

"…and they all lived happily ever after!" The book closed with a snap and sent dust flying in the girls' faces. "Well, what do you think?"

A light air flew through her chest for a moment. "Well, for starters, Cinderella should have thrown her sisters and step-mother in jail instead, but…"

Thought she had never intended to say it, in this dim moment when the fairy tale books seemed to have so little effect on Lucy, Unikitty chose to voice her less-than-kind thoughts. "You are possibly the most unromantic person I have ever met, and I know Batman."

"Hey, I'm romantic!" Lucy, again, attempted to defend the honor she didn't own. "I do plenty of stuff with Emmet that's romantic, I just don't do show-and-giggle with everything like other girls do over martinis." The very thought disgusted her, and Lucy spun the quarter she had found under the couch once more on her knee. She could feel Unikitty rolling her eyes.

"Ok, what romantic stuff do you do with Emmet, stuff that isn't his idea?"

At first, nothing came to her. Nothing. She thought of things Emmet did for her, like buy her little gifts and bring her flowers, comfort her in a weak moment and cry with her, but she couldn't think of what _she _did.

Then it all rushed forward.

"I ask him to take me to scary moves so I can hold onto him. I pretend it's a lot cooler than it is so he'll put his arm around me. I check on him first after every battle. I water Planty when he's busy. I–"

"Ok, ok, I believe you!" Unikitty's lighthearted laughter filled the room, and she patted her best friend on the back. "See, we're getting somewhere? So, do you love Emmet?"

A pause.

Lucy's face fell. "I don't know."

7:31

Unikitty shut the TV off and grabbed her fifty-sixth tissue for the night. "Ok, did that help anything?" Though she had seen the movie hundreds of times before, she had never noticed how Julia and John grabbed hands halfway through the film, which meant everything was in a totally new light…so she cried. A lot.

After no response greeted her, Unikitty turned to face the other side of the couch, where Lucy snored, fast-asleep and sprawled out with a pillow.

"WAKE UP!"

"ACK!"

The pillow to the face was not a pleasant way to rejoin the living, and Lucy sent a glare Unikitty's way the moment she could feel her face again. "I would hit you back, but you're probably mad enough."

"How much of that movie did you see?"

"Uh…I remember the part where Julia runs to the park…then that's about it."

"That's five minutes into the film."

"Oops."

7:44

Watching her warrior best friend reduced to a whimpering (though Lucy would detest Unikitty using that word) pile on the floor elicited some sympathy from the hardened teacher, and she cuddled down next to her on the floor. Lucy rubbed her head briefly, then drew her hands into her hoodie and tucked her legs in. She was in no mood to talk, though Unikitty wasn't ready to give up. "Let's try this again. Are you attracted to Emmet as a guy, a partener, and a teammate in life?"

"Yes, yes, and that's a weird phrase, but yes."

"Ok, so what's the problem?"

There was no groan. No holler, not moan of aggravation, no red flush in her face. Lucy merely mumbled, from her curled-up state, "I don't know if I'm 'in love' Everyone in movies...they just know. I don't know what that feeling is, and I can't lie and tell him I do when I don't know if I do."

Just as Unikitty had finished piecing together the odd sentence in her head, Lucy whispered, "It was nice, when he said he loved me, y'know? Before the panic kicked in that I had to tell him something back, it was nice t-to hear…that…that he loved me." Her throat was closing and tears started hammering at her sore eyes. She didn't let them out, but she didn't fight it back nearly as hard as she could have.

"Lucy…" The use of her real name brought on a look, a look of gratitude, warmth, and friendship, and Unikitty smiled right back. "…I'm the last one who wants to say this, but this may just be a time thing. I don't think you're_ not_ in love with Emmet, and I think eventually you will be and will know what it feels like, but for now…I don't know if you can say you are."

Again, Lucy had to rub her eyes against her hoodie, a thing she commonly did when she was about to cry, but don't worry, the two were completely unrelated. "I know. So, what do I tell him?"

"The truth. Emmet is sweet, he'll understand."

"I hope so."

7:57

Nervous? No, people on their way to the doctor, the dentist, were nervous. People who had to take exams were nervous. People who had to confess wrongdoings to their parents were nervous. Lucy had to go to the dentist to get a cavity filled for the first time. She hadn't studied for the test that decided if she would graduate. She had to confess to her parents in front of her little sibling who looked up at her. Nervous didn't begin to cover the sick feeling sending Lucy to the bathroom in false alarms every five minutes. She never felt like she had to throw up, but now? Who knew?

"Lucy, you've got to breathe a little." Unikitty felt her forehead once more, but it was cooler than the mean girl in fifth grade. "You're not sick, so I can't write you a note, you're going."

"He's going…he'll h-hate me." Lucy's throat gave her the choked-up feeling once more, and she berated herself for getting so close to someone, before immediately banishing the thought. Even if tonight went through the worst-case scenario, the year she had spent with Emmet was still the best in her life and she wouldn't trade it away for anything.

Unikitty shook her head. "He won't, he loves you!" She winced. "Well, maybe the wrong choice of words, but you do have to breathe, ok?"

The breath was shaky, but present, and Lucy nodded. "Ok."

A knock rung out at the door, four times in rapid succession, Emmet's knock. Lucy's eyes, bloodshot and broken, shot wide open. She shook her head fervently at Unikitty in one last, desperate plea for mercy, but the princess wouldn't have it, and she opened the door.

"Hey, Emmet!" Lucy wondered if Unikitty was either a very good actor, or just able to switch her moods at the flick of a wrist. "Are you ok? You took a nasty scrape at the battle there, I wanted to make sure it wasn't too bad."

Waving her off, Emmet continued to smile as he revealed a small scar on his right arm. "It's nothing, Lucy said it'll heal up in a couple weeks. For now, I think it makes me look kind of tough."

The injury vanished from his mind as he spotted Lucy, who had just worked up the courage to stand up and meet him. "Hi Lucy!" Emmet quickly hugged her, and she froze in his arms. He was warm, even after coming in from the November weather, and she would never understand why. Something curled her arms around his neck, and she pressed forward to hold him tighter. Something loosened. She breathed. It would be ok.

"Missed you," he murmured quietly, and Lucy just caught Unikitty sprint into the kitchen. "Oh, here, I brought you something!"

Pulling back, Emmet dug into his pocket, grabbed something that was at least small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, and opened to show her a small, jagged piece of red plastic, hooked onto a necklace chain. "Do you know what this is?"

She had to thank Emmet. The confusion of the small object made her forget the doom that surely lay ahead, and she bent to get a better look at the item. "Uh, garbage on string?"

His laughter was her favorite sound in the world. "Depends on who you ask. This is a tiny piece of the Piece of Resistance that chipped off at some point. I thought it was lost, but I went looking for it again–"

"Again?" Her voice was disbelief.

Shrugging, as if it was nothing, Emmet replied, "Yeah. But I finally found it, got a chain, and put it on. Now, you can always remember our adventure together!" The smile on his face was too much to bear. Emmet looked too happy to be in an apocalypse, too happy to be with someone like her, and why was her heart beating at a thousand miles a minute?

"Can I put it on you?" The sheepish tone of her voice persisted, even as she stared at him, frozen. She nodded, and he carefully clipped the necklace around her neck. "You look really pretty, even with a piece of plastic around your neck." Emmet giggled lightly, took her hand in his, and pressed a quick kiss to it, one that left his own face flushing hotter and redder than red wine. "You ready to go?"

He tuned to leave, hollering a quick goodbye to Unikitty, and something thawed inside Lucy's chest. She wasn't sure what it was, it certainly wasn't her heart, but it melted like chocolate, and her brain caught up with whatever it was that finally sparked alive in her body. She tugged Emmet backwards, caught his lips and kissed him, hard and loving where he stood.

They had kissed before, and the fact that he didn't feel it necessary to narrate like a comic book (like others did who shall not be named) while they did it was already a step up. But something about Emmet kissing her left her feeling like everything in the world would be ok. It was sappy and probably untrue, but it always made her feel a heck of a lot better.

Finally, when oxygen got impatient and tapped them each on the shoulder, Emmet pulled back, breathing heavily and stuttering, as usual. "Uh…should I ask what…what that was for, or…"

Lucy grinned so wide it nearly spilt her face. "I love you, Emmet Brickowski. A _lot."_

And somewhere, in the kitchen, a princess cat-unicorn had to hold in a squeal.


End file.
